As
a follow-up to my blog entry yesterday about gossip, I want to share
a great article posted today at AfterElton.com.
Writer Kim
Ficera explores gay gossip and draws a few incisive and insightful conclusions
about it, including the role that bloggers and the media play in enabling
stories to flourish that very often are based on practically nothing. She also
looks at the flip side -- the appetite and motivations gay people have to read
and/or spread gossip, especially about celebrities.
Ficera
asks, "Why, for example do we continue to insinuate that Oprah Winfrey and Jake
Gyllenhaal are gay when it's pretty clear they're not?"
Her
answer: "We want desperately for Oprah to be a lesbian because she'd grant the
entire GLBT community a level of respect we just don't have
now."
I think there's something to this point, as well as
other things she has to say. Ficera holds the mirror up for the GLBT community
to take a good look at ourselves and examine what exactly it is we gain by
trying to claim Jake/Tom/Oprah/et al as members of our gay tribe. Is it just
because we want them to be? (OK, I don't necessarily want Tom
Cruise to be gay. Please, no!)
We can try to make people gay
by hoping that if we gossip about it often enough -- despite a lack of any real
evidence -- it might transform into truth. But in doing so, we really don't
advance anything at all, and that includes our self-respect as well as "the gay
agenda."
Rumor Has It: The Gay Gossip Mill in the Age of
Blogging
(AfterElton.com)
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16 comments:
This is an excellent article. It reminds me that pushing a celebrity out of the closet just leaves you with a very unhappy, and less respected celebrity. Their reputation is tainted because they were outed instead of being honest and coming out when they were ready. In the end, if they don't come out, and they continue to deny it...maybe they really aren't gay. Shouldn't we be happy to have celebrities who support our community as straight allies? Save the outing for the closet cases who are badmouthing the community or politically assisting those who hurt us. Oh wait, Mary Cheney is already out of the closet.
Tom Crush is way out in neverther land.
He's got big problems and is weidered out totally.
Really gossip is just that and if taken sreiously it has the power to ruin someones life. Jake Gyllenhaal is hot beyond hot but talking about him being gay isn't going to turn him. We shouldn't even try. As a person and as a wiccan I try to respect all sentient beings and more people than current should do so as well, not that I'm saying anything is being seduced one way or the other by anyone or thing. Just thought/ wishful thinking.
The "AfterElton" article was great. My question is, when a gay blogger jokes that "Jake Gyllenhaal is my new boyfriend," is that really spreading a gay rumor? Have we lost our collective sense of humor? Really, all that means (to me) is "Jake Gyllenhaal is really hot and don't I wish."
Tom Cruise has probably taken a walk on the wild side more than once, but at this point, we don't want him. And I haven't heard gay rumors about Tom since he jumped the couch. Kathy Griffin is totally correct -- we're over Tom.
However, there *are* some celebrities who are clearly gay and would do their community a lot of good by coming out. This is not to suggest that they have a *responsibility* or an *obligation* to come out. It's a personal decision, and since I don't have the opportunity, much less the obligation, to come out to the entire world via Time Magazine, I can't very well ask another individual to do something that I might not do even if I could which I can't. But it would be great if they would ... (Anderson & Jodie, I'm lookin' right at ya).
I PERSONALLY DON'T CARE WHETHER THEY GAY OR NOT. I WILL STILL RESPECT AS A PERSON . BECAUSE , I FEEL THAT NOT MATTER WHAT POSITION WE IN , WE ARE STILL THE SAME PEOPLE .... PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA AND SOCIETY NEEDS TO STOP THE GOSSIP . IN REALITY WE DO LOOK STUPID FOR MAKING FALSE LIES , ABOUT THE PEOPLE THAT ENTERTAINT OUR SIGHT ..
ALSO FOR THE GAY COMMUNITY , YOU REALLY MAKING IT WORST FOR THE DECENT PEOPLE THAT STRUGGLE, WITH HATRE FROM OTHER .. HEY" WE GAY , BUT LET SHOW CLASS AND PRIDE ... I DIDN'T KNOW WE BECAME GOD TO JUSTIFY PEOPLE PREFFERENCE.. ANYWAYS OPHRA , TOM , AND JAKE ,KEEP LIVING LIFE ,BECAUSE I BELIEVE ALL OF YOU GOT THE STRENGHT TO LOOK BEYOND THE NAKE LIES...
P.S . I'M GAY ,BUT I HAVE MORALS,PRINCIPLES AND LIFE OF MY OWN ...
ARE you kidding why whould jake be gay he's HOT!
-aSHELY sIMPSON
Hiya red7eric :
I totally agree with you that we need to maintain a sense of humor. I see absolutely nothing wrong with a blogger joking that "Jake G. is my boyfriend." I think most people can tell when someone is being flip. The writer is being funny, he's not trying to start a rumor.
When Tom Cruise was a young, attractive star I am sure there were plenty of gay men who wished he was gay. At some point the wish transformed itself into a rumor that society as a whole ran with. But really, don’t you think that people accused Tom Cruise of being a homosexual because we know that it bugs him? Americans grow weary of celebrities who proselytize their faith and beliefs a little too much. I think this explains part of the current Mel Gibson drama being played out in the media. The creators of South Park are fully aware that Cruise might have a melt down over their "Closet" episode. Do they honestly care either way if he is REALLY gay or not? I suspect that they have found the perfect button of his to push to make him mad AND look hypocritical and silly. Is that nice? No, I suppose not. But you know what, you put yourself out there like Cruise does you should expect people to question what you are saying. Same with Gibson. Two years ago when Passion of the Christ came out people were questioning him over feelings towards Jews. “Of course I am not Anti-Semitic”, he stated, but would never renounce his father’s notions that the Holocaust was fiction. By and large, people run with rumors about celebrities because we are put off by their personal persona; whether that is saying they are closeted or whatever else might be said at their expense.
I hope Operah is not gay because I'd like to lick her clit into a frennzy.
Rather they are or not as far as any of them is publicly concerned they are not and "everyone" needs to respect that.
saying Jake is the s.... is not saying he's gay the man is just hot. There isn't a gay person who doesn't think him and Ledger are hot.
Who gives a damn? Gyllenhaal is an only so-so actor and Tom Cruise can't act at all. Oprah is the biggest non-talent since Aunt Jemima (mute painting on pancake box). Of all, Cruise is without doubt the most offensive, an egomaniac who thinks that we should keep track of his every bowel movement. Worse, he is a member of the pseudo-church, Scientology, which means he is a shill for the estate of L. Ron Hubbard. What kind of church could it be when it posits no God and sports a dogma based on the notion that space aliens turned us into zombies whose only salvation is paying the church so that we can take lie detector tests? Give me a break! At least Gyllenhaal had the *cajones* to make *Brokeback Mountain.* Can you imagine Cruise playing someone gay? He's just possibly the best walking advertisement yet for internalized homophobia and latent self-loathing. Ugh!
In reality Bronxpapichulo84 we don't look stupid for making false lies, we look stupid when we can't write, spell or put together a single sentence without a mistake in it.
I wish Tom wass gay. He can sleep in my bed anytime.
As a writer and non-wiccan, I completely agree with this fine example of wiccanhood:
"As a person and as a wiccan I try to respect all sentient beings and more people
than current should do so as well"
P.S. Hi Kenny. You had me until the Paris Hilton musings. We really REALLY need to discuss this.
Dave S.
I think the power of being honest about ourselves the "real" everyday people has been the most prowerful change of all.
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