I looked around everywhere for some thread where I could put this, since I have this big huge fear of starting threads
and have never done so before.... But I couldn't find an appropriate place so I'm posting this here to get it off my chest because it really did make a strong impression on me. It relates to an offhand remark in a TV program about a very serious topic in itself, an offhand remark that made me sad. And made me think of BBM and especially of Ennis.
I was watching a BBC docu-drama on TV yesterday;
"Nürnberg, nazis on trial" from 2006. It's a mix of documentary recent-day interviews with people who were present at the trials, various original footage from 1945, and actors re-creating the trial as it goes ahead. It was interesting, intense, well-made and thoughtprovoking. But.....
In the course of the episode (which focused on Albert Speer), there was also a fair bit of information about Fritz Sauckel, who had the chief responsibility for getting forced labour to Germany from the occupied territories, in order to manufacture weapons for Speer's war machine in Germany in WWII. Sauckel was depicted as a complete and utter cringing coward in the documentary. Nervous and frightened, shivering, moaning and groaning, taking no responsibility for his actions, blaming everyone else.
In the course of the program a US military man of the old school (I didn't catch his rank or exactly what he was doing at the trial) gave the following as his recent-day RL interview opinion of Sauckel (and I'm paraphrasing, but it's close enough to what was actually said):
"S. wasn't a man, he was nothing but a big sissy. I wouldn't go as far as indicating that he was a homosexual, but he was a weakling, a coward, he could never have stood up for himself in a fight." So..... here is this high-rank nazi, a contemptible war criminal, resonsible for the deaths or misery of literally millions of people, a man who was condemned to death for his deeds, evidently a coward, weak and nervous, eager to please the big shots no matter what he was told to do, unable to stand up for himself -
but the speaker still wouldn't go as far as calling him gay?!?!? Even S hadn't sunk quite as low as to merit *that* level of contempt, had he?
(Incidentally, we later learned that S. had 12 kids, so it certainly wasn't his private life that contributed to our military man's bigoted statement).
I was shocked that BBC kept that statement from one of "the good guys" in the program. It speaks volumes and more about attitudes towards gay men that one would wish were long in the past by now. It had everything to do with expression of horrible prejudices and nothing to do in relation to describing Sauckel and his actions. Keeping that statement in the program indicated that the program-maker didn't even realize this; - as late as 2006!
Also, I think this illustrated perfectly not only what prejudices have been alive and may still be thriving in the military for the last 60 years and more..... but also very, very strongly reminded me what Ennis had to struggle with in his life. Not only the fear of being found out and outright killed, but the stereotypes he'd learned to completely accept, and the opinions he'd been brought up with and had internalized - and believed. That "queers" were worthy of nothing but contempt and ridicule, that they were pitiful cowards. That about anything wrong or bad you could otherwise do in your life would still be better than admitting to being "queer".