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Here is what I wrote in response to Alvin Tan's review of
Iron Ladies II:
New comment posted after this first
one...
I'm just not sure,
definitely conflicted...
I'm just not sure,
definitely conflicted...I understand what everyone is saying and it seems
true that Iron Ladies does put out very stereotypical attitudes about
gay, lesbian, and trans culture. I think we can all say that it's not fair
to assume that all gay, lesbian, and transgender/transsexual people acts in
the same way as these characters.
That's where I kind of split off though. I understand that gay men are
particularly pissed that straight people may see this as how gay men are
really like. In other words, we don't' like to be seen as effeminate or
sissy-like. Isn't that then casting judgment over those gay people who are
femmes? So, not only are straight people discriminating against them, but
some gay people are willing to do the same thing?
I think the outrage should perhaps be redirected... We should perhaps look
at why being effeminate is seemingly bad in our culture. One of my big
conflicts is that effeminate gay men are perhaps those people who have
helped the greatest to further gay rights for people; it's not the closeted
people or those who are masculine/straight-acting. The femmes are the ones
who are willing to go in public and said to people that we should be
accepted the way we are. It seems ironic that then some gay people turns
against the femmes.
This is definitely a tangent away from Iron Ladies II. I understand what
Alvin had said and I agree that the stereotypes are extreme. I just want
people to be upfront about what they are objecting to. If there is a
judgment against effeminate men, then it should be made clear. If we know
that, then we know social change must occur in removing bias, hate, and
homophobia against that. If we are to change straight people's attitudes
about gay people, then we should also remove that internalized
homophobia/femme-phobia amongst ourselves.
Does this make sense?
Back to "interesting"
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