[lbo-talk] Re: Unequivocal statements by Friedrich Engels (Homophobia from German maoist loons)

[Liza Featherstone]

I love Queer Eye, for so many reasons. "Boy Meets Boy" I was less fascinated
by overall, *except* the final episode was really interesting and Chuck0, I
would love to hear your take on it. I was intrigued that the straight guys
seemed to feel they had been "promoting understanding" by pretending to be
gay on the show -- challenging assumptions, stereotypes about who is gay,
etc. while the gay guys seemed angry at them for the deception, and felt the
whole thing perpetuated and trivialized the oppression gay folks already
have to deal with. aside from the fact that the gay guys are kind of silly
to think the show would have been AT ALL interesting without the "who's
straight" intrigue...I thought it was fun that the show seemed to be
challenging its own legitimacy even within its climactic (and of course most
watched) final episode, allowing debate over its entire premise. It would be
cool if Queer Eye would similarly challenge/question its own social meaning,
as they would probably do it much more artfully and amusingly.

Liza


> From: Chuck0 <chuck at mutualaid.org>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2003 18:12:55 -0500
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Re: Unequivocal statements by Friedrich Engels
> (Homophobia from German maoist loons)
> 
> Dennis Perrin wrote:
> 
>> I made a similar point on some Pacifica show years ago, much to the host's
>> visible anguish. I said that if given the choice b/w the current make-up of
>> the American government running TV (a la the BBC), or corporate capital, I'd
>> take the latter. More room for sexual and artistic dissent (which in many
>> cases political activism makes possible), and, as DRM points out, a shiv up
>> the reactionary ass. I mean, the Family Values crowd boycotting Disney over
>> Queer Issues? Beautiful.
> 
> Interesting points. I often wonder what all the factors are that
> short-circuited the relgious right's culture wars. Thomas Frank had some
> interesting comments about this in his book.
> 
> Speaking of queer TV: I'm ansolutely hooked on Queer Eye for the
> Straight Guy. Go figure that one of my vices is a contradiction of my
> anti-capitalist activism.
> 
> Did anybody else watch 'Boys Meets Boy'? My brain was blown away by the
> "queers and their allies" stuff that was in the final episode.
> 
> << Chuck0 >>
> 
> Homepage                 -> http://chuck.mahost.org/
> Infoshop.org             -> http://www.infoshop.org/
> Monumental Mistake (blog)-> http://chuck.mahost.org/weblog/index.php
> Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/
> Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/
> MutualAid ISP            -> http://www.mutualaid.org/
> Infoshop Portal          -> http://portal.infoshop.org/
> Infoshop Science         -> http://science.infoshop.org/
> AIM: AgentHelloKitty
> 
> 
> "...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in
> the world today are anarchists, who are busily
> undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is
> still trying to form committees."
> -- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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