Is society clinging onto..... by - ijb4000 1 hour ago (Sun Apr 9 2006 11:25:35)
Ignore this User | Report Abuse
its prejudices of a minority group where it appears it's still socially acceptable to mock and joke about them and deny them human rights?
I'll elaborate. I found the that the Oscar debacle was more than just a controversy but an ironic paradox. 40 years ago people from ethnic minorities were cruelly treated as 2nd class citizens, denied their rights, and made jokes of by many people who "held" society as their own.
As time has progressed much of this prejudice, bit by bit has genuinely broken down between ethnic minorities and white people in the USA and Europe but further than that, even for those who are still racist or very very conservative, it has also become very socially unacceptable for them to call people of different religions and colors names or be treated unfairly with regards to employement etc and rightly so.
However during this time gay people's right have been much slower to progress, partly due to invisibility but also a code of silence and fear amongst society about it that has only began lifting in recent years and been discussed openly. Because of this slow progress we have a paradox: Racism is unacceptable but Homophobia isn't.
Those same people who scream about homosexuality now as being wrong, were 40 years ago screaming about mixed race marriages, who can sit where on the bus, whether they should be given fair opportunities, etc. Paradoxically it is those same (type of) people who then rejoiced recently over Crash's win, not because they were fans before they'd even heard of Brokeback, but rather in spite at Brokeback. Basically they are maintaining their prejudice; but have now moved onto a social group where homosexuality is coming out into the open, and where it's still acceptable for them to hate us. Add relgion to the melting pot and you've got a right nasty stench. Remember religion is a free choice for us all, homosexuality isn't! And yes I do believe in Jesus - but he said nothing about homosexuality. I don't believe everything in the Bible. It is a report of what happened, not everything about what actually happened. To believe everything it says is to close your mind.
So I go back to my original question: Is society trying to cling onto the last social group where it is still socially acceptable to bad mouth them, deny them their rights and joke about them on TV? To me Brokeback Mountain was never about this when I first saw the film - it was about love and I want to maintain as much of that integrity of the film as is possible - but other issues and facts have been made clear to us all as a result of its making - the hysteria of those with a reinvigorated anti-gay agenda.
I know this is an unashamedly political post, in so far conservatives politicise homosexuality. Other than that I don't hold socialist left-wing views as I'm sure many would like to categorise me and others.
Would like to hear what others think on these issues. It would be really good if you could respond - let's be open and frank about what's happening to gay people at the moment.
"Hell, that's the most I've spoke in a year" - Ennis del Mar
www.bettermost.net
