Tuesday, June 17, 2008

"why do gays talk that way"


In my continuing series of posts on ways people find my blog, I stumbled across this one.
Someone found my blog by typing. "why do gays talk that way" into a search engine.

WHAT A STUPID QUESTION!

What way does the person mean? The question assumes that there is a "way" all gay people talk. Is the person assuming that "that way" means with a lisp? Or does "that way" mean using "mahvelous" or "faaaabulous" every other word? Or maybe "that way" means combatently.

I would hope "that way" means "with understanding for those who have been oppressed." I would hope "that way" means tolerant of others opinions but not willing to be bowled over by blowhards. I would hope "that way" means we talk with an openness that is not usually found in our society.
What this says to me is that this person sees "gays" as a monolithic block. This person sees us all as the same. This person seems to assume if one gay person does something, then all gay people do that. This person seems to assume that we do not have variations.
However, we are not all Neil Patrick Harris. We are not all Ellen DeGeneres. We are not all Sean Hayes or Harvey Fierstein. We are as varied as people come.

Unfortunately, I think this view, that we are a HOMOgeneous block is more prevalent than we care to think. But thank God we are varied! I would hate to think that the whole of gaydom would have to be represented by me!

4 comments:

Lemuel said...

The longer I live the more diverse I find our Family to be, and I find great joy in that.

I guess it might indicate that we're "regular" people after all! ;)

Anonymous said...

Look on the bright side. The fact that the person is asking questions probably means they're open to dialogue and learning. To me, that translates into the possiblity that they could come to see the diversity and individuality you're talking about rather than the stereotypes they currently now.

Ur-spo said...

in certain parts of Chicago things were written in English, Spanish, and Gay
'Caution"
and
"Aviso"
and
"Look out Mary"

cb said...

Unfortunately I think most stereotypes are based in a modicum of truth.

I think because gay culture was (and still sort of is) forced underground, these sort of learned speech patterns and vocabulary words are passed down.

It's totally social mores and folkways at work! Take THAT college sociology 101!