Comments on: Philebrity Wonders: Is “I Am Gay” Homophobic?

By: LadyChaos

LadyChaos — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:48:49 +0000

Homophobic or not, it’s just sad.

By: sluggerB

sluggerB — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:20:28 +0000

lord_whimsy: agreed
rjb: agreed

By: rjb

rjb — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:18:04 +0000

The “consultation of other gay friends” provided Holland Boys with the peace of mind that the song/video was not homophobic.

Yet I wonder why no one pulled them aside to explain how boring it was? Super fucking yawn. If anything is homophobic it is their trite and exhausted representation of gay folk.

Unless they are supposed to be Euro-trash gays from 1985. There were no shots of clocks in reverse, right? Is this gay time travel?

By: lord_whimsy

lord_whimsy — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:05:49 +0000

As far as gay minstrelry, Julian and Sandy still outwit the stale or crass gay tropes exploited by either.

By: sluggerB

sluggerB — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:57:23 +0000

It’s not even a GOOD gay minstrel show. VIP isn’t that good either, but at least they talk about drugs and nasty butt sex instead of being fastidious and having good flossing habits. Holland Boys aren’t being offensive, they’re being simpletons. And even if they are trying to be offensive, the content is as passe’ as gay pride itself, so they’re doing a sickly job of it.

By: sluggerB

sluggerB — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:52:42 +0000

This song/video is no more homophobic than that new Adam Sandler movie, but it’s also no more witty or entertaining than that new Adam Sandler movie.

By: lord_whimsy

lord_whimsy — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:35:11 +0000

Not sure why this would be offensive. How is this different from a gay minstrel show like, say, VIP–other than the fact that they are actually gay?

Is “authenticity” the issue, here? If so, that is very shaky ground to plant a flag, since that is rarely a concern to any artist worth their salt. Dylan? Springsteen? Bowie? The Stones? All fakes, thank heavens. This doesn’t invalidate what they do–it just makes them artists. If they were hung up on being “authentic” and “unpretentious”, they would all be singing about middle-class suburbs. That axe-wielding aesthetic bigot Pete Seeger never realized that authenticity was just another kind of artifice, and that he was just as much a phony as Dylan was, which is rather sad.

One can be both inauthentic and sincere–and as Big Oscar once said: “A mask says more than a face.”

By: lord_whimsy

lord_whimsy — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:46:37 +0000

Und ya:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cejq10jZ0kQ

By: lord_whimsy

lord_whimsy — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:38:56 +0000

A grand Teutonic tradition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siF-kaxWR6E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM-v5ShRyUo