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Beth Ditto's gay rant
May 30, 2007, 11:20 GMT
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Older Talkback
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Sounds like Beth is still playing a victim. As Roseanne once said, 'If it wasn't for gay men, fat chicks wouldn't have anyone to dance with.' Stop laying blame on other people. Women are complicit in their own oppression.
I applaud anyone who laughs at Paris Hilton. I also agree designers are to blame. So... where are the female designers and trend-setters?
(btw - as a grammar nazi I must inform you that the plural of stone is .... stone. No 's'.)
cheers!
Yeah, we're responsible for alien abductions and any other thing no brainers want to blame on somebody! Skinny women buy the clothes not gay men (guess what, they look at other men!) so blame them you loser.
The gay male fashion photographers in my photo classes absolutely objectified women, only had hot female friends and openly critiqued female bodies, far more than the straight males, straight women or gay women.
It's obviously not everyone, but that doesn't mean there isn't a culture of that (within gay culture, not in and of itself.)
of course, there is that in gay culture. There always has been. Hasn't anyone seen gay porn. The only people gay men are more critical of than women are men! HOWEVER, this is not the end all be all of WHAT gay men are and Beth's attempts at trying to single out gay men as the driving force of oppression within mass media is absurd (the only thing she has proven is that gays/lesbians are equally succeptable to the sort of artificiality that dominant straight culture is accused of). The whole capitalist system which created fashion as we know it today is driven by both the few people at the top and the millions of people at the bottom. Ditto is losing her sense of reality as she becomes more famous and her music is losing its integrity. She is participating in exactly what her idols ie. Bikini Kill attempted to tear apart (arguably) and using her social conscious as a fashion accessory. All kate moss has to do is assert her allegiance in the war on fat-phobia and she's in the club. never mind that she single handedly became rich and famous by particpating in and creating the system that Ditto abhors, on a superficial level of course. Her politics aren't about vilifying the rich period, there about getting her piece of the pie. Allowing anyone into the upper class. Now that's radical. To her, women are the most oppressed segment of the population. Never mind vocalizing the endless struggle of the working class (across race and gender). I think that as she becomes more famous and her record company realizes that it is because artificial social consciousness is the greatest identity fad and product-pusher, her politics will become an even greater part of her image and she will come to resemble even more closely the gay men that she is currently in the habit of berating.
I agree with Beth's statements, or at least understand why she said them. I'm a bigger gay man, and it pisses me off more than anything when i meet gay guys who are more concerned with Dior jackets and 100,000 dollar louis vitton bags, AND have no concept about political issues and what is going on the world. I think being gay is just as bad as being a woman when it comes to the body issues and media suggestions. At the same time though, you can't blame someone for dieting or being skinny. It;s just sad that that is all we see in the mainstream media. I think things are progressively getting better for women (I mean Beth Ditto was on the cover of 'sexist' magazine NME naked) but I think gay men are still being portrayed as the buff, tanned and outright gorgeous type in the media...it's like the public can only deal with gay men if tey are typically attractive. the only tv show or movie I can think of right now who has 'unattractive' gay men is The Sarah Silverman Program.
It is hard to tell if gays are at fault, but As I have pointed out in bootiesbymichelle.wordpress.com/about/, unless women fight back against this oppressive skinniness fad which is killing a thousand or more women and girls yearly, and psychologically harming tens of millions, the dieting and clothing and exercise equipment industries will continue indefinitely to harm self-esteem, and to exploit women and girls both economically and psychologically, but, even more, physically.
Gay men are not to blame for this. It is like saying we should blame the French or the Italians because there are many French and Italian fashion designers. I can say there are many straight designers (both male and female). Some straight designers are Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Vera Wang, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Stella McCartney. They use the same kind of women for showing their collections. Just as doll-like and anorexic.
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