How Masculine Perfection Is Destroying the Gay Community

Yes, This article sheds light on the stereotypical divisions in the LGBTIQ world and the labeling of people in a racist way.

Masculinity as depicted and billed by a majority of gay men as the best form of an appealing character. I have seen it in many examples before not only on gay dating apps.

http://www.vice.com/read/why-gay-men-need-to-be-proud-of-each-other-again

How Masculine Perfection Is Destroying the Gay Community

By Patrick Cash
The Monday after the Orlando shooting, Old Compton Street was full of pride. "We're here, we're queer, we have no fear," we chanted, as 49 balloons were released to remember the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting. London's LGBTQ community had come together to mourn the lives lost, and show solidarity in the face of hate.
In some ways, Orlando was a wake-up call. Living in liberal London you can forget how many enemies you have across the world. Every time we click "Hide post" on an article about homophobic mobs in Uganda, or about gay boys hanged in Iran, it's a way of easing the daily reminder that so many people in the world still hate us so viciously.
But in forgetting about the enemy outside, many gay men have become enemies to themselves, and the battleground on which they're fighting is masculinity. In writing a play about the gay scene, Superficial, I noticed how the use of the phrases "masc4masc" and "no fems" have risen on hook-up apps. Some men describe themselves as "straight-acting." A "masc drag" of caps and sweatpants is more popular than ever.
In forgetting about the enemy outside, gay men have become the enemies to themselves.
In a world where sex is the prevailing currency, this makes feminine gay men worthless. A flamboyant friend told me recently how he was at a club when a guy approached his group and invited his two friends to a chems party. "Not you, though," he told my friend. It's an isolated example, but raises bigger questions about how a certain trope of gay men have allowed a savage hierarchy of attraction to dominate over others.
The argument is that it's simply sexual attraction. When in search of cock, no one likes a time waster—so putting "no fems" on your Grindr profile just saves the bother. But attraction bleeds into cultural demarcation. The performer Jonathan Richardson runs a queer clown troupe named The Fems. "Buffoon is a type of satirical clowning performed by lower social orders to mock the elite," he says. "And there's nothing lower on the gay scene than fems."
In my play, I've chosen to concentrate on a particular side effect of this phenomenon: previously camp men suddenly adopting a persona of "masc." There's a unique tragedy about somebody repressing who they are because of what other people think; it's the very opposite of pride.
"People who have been oppressed take on the characteristics of their oppressors," says RuPaul. Perhaps here lies the psychological key to this idolization of masculinity. If you've grown up constantly policing yourself for any inadvertent expression associated with your sexuality—a gesticulation too extravagant, a voice too sing-song—then maybe you also teach yourself to hate it in others.

تعليقات

المشاركات الشائعة من هذه المدونة

«الإندبندنت»: الشرطة المصرية تصطاد المثليين عبر «جريندر»

عن العنف الذي نتعرض له لمجرد كوننا مثليين من قبل الأفراد

‘No Longer Alone’: LGBT Voices from the Middle East, North Africa Videos, Report Highlight Issues of Identity, Activism Print