Talking Points 3 Carlson

1."Gay men are confirmed in their role as the Other---a bit silly, prone to emotional and hysterical outbursts, narcissistic, obsessed with sex and fancy clothes, and inhabiting an exotic and "decadent" life on the margins."

This quote struck me because this is how gay men have been portrayed in film and TV my whole life. This is a comfortable stereotype of gay men that the culture of power has accepted. It is like how Johnson said, "The trouble is produced by a world organized in ways that encourage people to use difference to include or exclude, reward or punish, credit or discredit, elevate or oppress, value or devalue, leave alone or harass." No reasonable person would deny that gays have been excluded, punished, discredited, oppressed, devalued and harassed in our society.

2. "The challenge is to engage straight men in a deconstructive analysis of how they understand "being straight" in ways that involve treating women and gays as Others."

I think this is an important point because straight men are often very uncomfortable about homosexuality when it comes to gay men. I think it's also important to point out that many straight men view "feminine" gay women favorably but are uncomfortable with "butch" lesbians. You can see how society, as a whole, has adopted these feelings that stem from straight males. I don't know if our male dominated society is willing to fully embrace a strong gay male and not the effeminate stereotype that is seen in the movies and on TV.

3." ...but we have a responsibility as public educators in a democratic society to engage them in a dialogue in which all voices get heard or represented and in which gay students and teachers feel free to "come out" and find their own voices."

This is the closing sentence of the whole piece and I think it is an important one to end on. It is exactly what we are doing in class. We are trying to understand and appreciate differences, not by blind acceptance, but through open discussion and dialogue. It is easy to accept something because it is politically correct but it's more important to arrive at the same conclusion through understanding.

I think Carlson made me think back to when I was a kid and "gaylord" was the big insult of choice. I went to school at a time when kids didn't "come out" because it wasn't an option. I remember I got my ear pierced when I was eleven ('87) and even though I made sure that I got the so called "non-gay" ear pierced I still got called a "gaylord". I remember straight kids getting beat up for being labeled a "homo" so no one who was actually gay would come out and say they were. As I got towards the end of high school I think it began to be slightly more acceptable, but I still can't remember any openly gay male students in school. I think it is great that kids have more of an opportunity to be themselves today, even though being gay still must be difficult in our society.