I am definitely a heterosexual, who recently cured myself of homophobia and it was right after a long conversation with a couple of Irish gay guys in a pub (Irish, of course) over coffee and cigarettes. I have never been too anti, but before there had been some things always irritating me, that is this appearance, common among gay guys (not only, though), expressed in their gestures, walk etc., which me and my friends used to call briefly: fagness. And that Irish gay couple was evidently faggy. I think that thanks to that beer we were drinking together as well as that chitchat about everything (history of Ireland and Poland for example, also about gays) I got used to it and it no longer irritates me.
I’m not going to become a supporter or an activist of gay movements, of course. It makes me laugh when someone sometimes backs his artistic or intellectual mediocrity with his sexual orientation (and I know such persons), or something of which I once heard in TOK FM radio station and called gay culture. I think that sexual orientation is a private thing of every one of us. Of course in Poland it is not, it’s a taboo and the orientation other than heterosexual is a perversion and a sin.
The above part of MacKozer’s (the author of MacKozer: in my perspective) post resulted in a discussion between me and him (Geje na stos czyli wynurzenia klechy), which I find so interesting that I decided to publish it here. Especially that it is still open and in my idealistic visions there’s still plenty of place for the continuation in some bigger circle of Visitors. Or even more especially that I’m going to write another post in this subject soon. Enjoy!
homikus: You say: It makes me laugh when someone sometimes backs his artistic or intellectual mediocrity with his sexual orientation (and I know such persons), or something of which I once heard in TOK FM radio station and called gay culture.
Makes laugh or not, but it’s certainly nothing good. It creates borderlines, new categories, which should rather be got rid of and not created… I don’t like it either. Nay! A friend told me once about a student of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, who, being a heterosexual, poses as a gay guy for the purposes you write about… And this is nonsense.
But gay culture, well, it’s something else. It could include for example not the homosexuals’ artistic work, but simply this where homosexuality is a subject matter etc. In this case the term gay culture has a completely new meaning, much more sensible and logical.
MacKozer: As for the gay culture. For me it’s a artificial thing in so far as I just assume that sexuality is a private thing in the sense of normality. Whether someone is hetero- or homosexual - this is not a taboo or something to hide, but there’s also nothing to emphasize. In my ideal vision of normality the sexual orientation should not be a reason for building a ghetto nor for rejection or elitism.
I understand that for example a movie about homosexual couples, whether we like it or not, is also about their problems in a clash with patriarchal heterosexual culture of the Christian Europe and in this sense it can be described as a part of gay culture. Nevertheless in my opinion homosexuality is a part of our reality and culture. I think that if the walls of taboo finally fell down and people got used to every kind of diversity, this gay culture would automatically vanish.
And as for this getting used to every kind of diversity. I think that people are subconsciously terribly afraid of anything different. Otherness, which shatters people’s habits and deprives them of their constant solid vision of reality, is always considered as something abnormal. Unfortunately, this is just instilled into us along with the education in such a monolithic society.
Even myself, when I see a black man or a disabled person, somewhere deep in my mind I feel uncomfortable in a presence of otherness. Before that evening when I had a great time with that Irish gay couple over beer and cigarettes gays had been no exception.
homikus: Right. That’s exactly what I meant by borderlines. You say about movies about homosexuals clashing with the reality as it is. These are most widely known, because they have something to tell, a problem (which is real) to be brought to people’s attention, an attitude to be changed. But it’s only a part. There are movies about gays and lesbians, in which there’s no reference to heteronormativity or homophobia. They just are and just like hundreds of stories of love between a woman and a man there are simple, happy and optimistic stories of homosexual love. Same with comedies, drama films, erotic films and any other. But in 99% of cases these movies are not completely unknown here in Poland. This kind of cinema, free from emphasizing homophobia etc., is what I was talking about.
As for getting used to changes - well, unfortunately you’re right. Especially today when the progress in every area is so rapid that breakthroughs are not like one for a few generations, but like one generation for a few breakthroughs. Fear is, to some extent, understandable. There are changes in people’s mentality, but they are disproportionately slow. Future generations, already used to this rush and raised in it, will probably be different. That’s what it looks like for me, when I put my parents’ generation by myself, my friends and people whom I constantly spend my time with.
I am a little bit different case, perhaps. I spent a whole year in China, surrounded by foreignness and otherness in almost every aspect and almost everywhere. And this really broadens horizons and makes open to the world. Maybe because of that I have a rather twisted attitude and maybe I expect too much from people, of whom the majority haven’t ever had this chance and for them the height of cultural diversity is just someone with red-coloured hair or pierced tongue. They just think in categories not as wide as it is necessary today. And this is not an offence or an accusation of backwardness. The normal course of events.
MacKozer: Homikus, about the gay culture - I understand your point of view. But in my opinion all these gay movies about loving couples, all these gay drama films, comedies or erotic films are already a part of our culture and I think that sooner or later (but probably after we’re gone) they will be treated in this way, because that’s what they should be treated like.
In some countries I already observe this trend to show gays not as some kind of curiosity making the movie more colourful, but as a normal, natural part of a society. Those are maybe not gay themed movies, but the motif of homosexuality occurs just like any other. Let’s take as an example the last Czech comedy I’ve seen, Účastníci zájezdu (Holiday Makers). This is the first movie aimed at mass audience, in which gays aren’t showed as aliens from Mars. But I think this is characteristic for the Czech cinema in general (I’m a great fan of Czech cinema and culture).
When the walls of taboo finally fall down, the movies you mention will come out from the background and become a rightful part of our culture.
homikus: Hmm, having thought about it I must say that you’re right. But there’s one problem. Even in the West, so progressive when it comes to the attitude towards sexual orientation, it still is a social problem. Not that big maybe, but still is. Because this ideal situation you’re talking about is just sheer Utopia.
For it to arise many world views should first go out of date… Unfortunately, extremely popular world views. For example, in the Christianity damnation of homosexuality is unavoidable, the Bible says this or that, and that’s that. It’s not a matter of changing the ideological line of churches or a matter of decisions, regulations.
And because the conservative circles are almost always, more or less, connected with the Christianity, the problem will not disappear. ‘Cause on Christianity stands the world! :)
How different it was in ancient Greece, for instance. If it wasn’t for the burden of the Christian heritage, which is so hard to free ourselves of, a simple thought about two guys wouldn’t arouse any disgust in a heterosexual man, but only indifference. Abomination, which homosexual relationships are considered to be, has been instilled just by Christianity.
That’s why some boundaries, borderlines, some division will probably last for a long time, still. There will always be a huge group of people, who will fight gays and lesbians on ideological, religious or any other grounds.
Well, OK, someone could say it’s quite normal that from the dawn of ages there have always been opposite and clashing points of view, there have always been things some people like and other dislike. But we are not talking about two equivalent views. We’re talking about some elementary rights of a human being, rights limited in the name of ideologies, views or politics. And the latter are inferior to the first.
That’s why the situation is like it is, even in the West. The more rights homosexuals have and the more friendly the attitude to them is, the stronger and more aggressive gets the opposite option…
(rating: +1, rates: 1)
Loading ...
