Another Zealot Takes Up The Cause
It’s nice when people can make light fun of stupid things in this world. There’s nothing quite like having a good chuckle at goths claiming that they are somehow superior and interesting and intelligunt and such, (yes that spelling mistake was intentional, it was a joke. Bugger off already). More than ever due to the internet and such, very specific groups bringing out extremely strong stereotypes make themselves extremely easy targets, lets examine these closer shall we children?
- Goths - The fashion style can look tremendous on the right kind of person, but like most fashions, 90% of the people who adopt it look shit. Oh, and they’re usually stupid and pathetic, and for some reason have a massive ego about how wonderful they all are.
- Teenage Girls/weblog types - Animated GIFs? Hideous clashing colour schemes? Unreadable text due to said colour schemes? Pictures of famous people or anime or Final Fantasy Characters? All you need now is thousands of words about precisely nothing that is in no way enjoyable to read due to the lack of spelling, punctuation, grammar or content and you’ve got yourself an award winning shitbox.
- Feminists - Not the real deal, I have no problem with those who fight for sensible things like equal pay and such, but the screaming females who want more women in gaming (or female friendly games) and such I have trouble understanding. Most females I’ve met don’t like gaming. They think it’s pointless and they don’t care. Why force it on them?
- Protesters - Not those who have a genuine reason and carefully research a cause but those who blindly follow on the parade of protesting about something. VSU (Voluntary Student Unionism) is a really fantastic one. I guess they’re worried they won’t get thousands of dollars to staple poorly written propoganda all over everything.
- Believers - Particularly in the religious context, these type can just be really stupid. There are plenty of others who read that Make Money Quick malarky and believe that the right “formula” can make you a millionaire. Either way, they’re all the same sort of gullible idiots and they deserve what they get.
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It goes on and on. Simply put, they are generalisations and cruel ones, but there are so many people who fit this generalisation down to the last dotted ‘i’, people you’ve almost certainly met in some context that you can really understand the observations made. I’d like to point one out that will probably shock you. The screaming queen.
Got your breath back yet? I must be homophobic just saying it mustn’t I? I must be. But I’m not. I have no problem with homosexuality, I have that many people close to me who are that it just isn’t a concern. What does bother me is the type that shove it in my face. A while ago, my best friend, who I spent far more time with than anyone else before or since turned out to be gay. He had some unsureness at first, but he dealt with it. I was impressed, but then it started. Before, he had always argued vehemently that gays shouldn’t be allowed to adopt kids, now, unsurprisingly he was for it. Everything had to have a gay subtext. I was practically forced to read all sorts of books expressly written for gays, on and on and on. I’ve seen this behaviour everywhere, but recently a fantastic spoof site called idiot toys (look in the links if you must) suddenly attracted the short attention span of this tool.
For months Idiot Toys (geddit? look at the initials and stop making me explain good jokes..) has generally made a lot of very good observations about the marketing of electronic gizmos, one of the common ones being that marketing is more and more pushing towards the female/gay market. It’s not an insult on the writers part to lump these two groups together, it’s very clear that this is how the manufacturers are lumping them together. Anyway, this is what started Mr Tom Gay Coates on his bike. Note how first he laughs and appreciates the humour and then goes on to say that it’s all rude and prejudiced. Note how the author actually explains that this is not the case and is ignored. Note the endless ranting.
Thing is, it’s not nasty humour. It’s clearly meant in a light hearted atmosphere, it’s not in any way proclaiming that all gays should be shot or such. But Mr. Coates knows, and by god is he going to tell us about it.
If I was nasty, I’d say that Tom Coates is very likely just recently out or extremely immature, not yet at the stage where he’s dealt with it and isn’t so sensitive. But instead I’ll just say he’s a dumb fuck and should go and seek commiserations on one of his rambling and shitty blogs.
October 27th, 2005 at 11:04 am
It’s not nasty humour, but it is stupid humour and it does damage. Seems to me the person going on about how gay phones are is the one that’s obsessed, and the other guy is the one trying to make it a non-issue.
October 27th, 2005 at 12:31 pm
To be honest, 90% of humour involves slagging someone off. Americans seem to think that it’s actually 100%, but what would they know. Think of a single joke that you’ve heard that doesn’t in some way insult someone.
As for doing damage, I think Mister Tom “Gay” Coates has probably done more damage for the cause than this blog has.
October 27th, 2005 at 3:25 pm
It was ok with Tom at first, as he had pointed out. But the number of times that IT had a go with gays was what irked him. He had a point and the pundits at IT and its cohorts made it as if he was just crying foul over the smallest things. Blogging about a phone for gays once is alright, blogging about gadgets for gays for soooo many times is something else.
October 27th, 2005 at 6:59 pm
Tom did go a little off on one but there was a good point underneath the rant which would’ve benefited from a calmer explanation.
Contrary to what you say, humor doesn’t have to slag anyone off. It can affectionately tease or pointedly satirize instead. When people are genuinely satirizing something (as Idiot Toys claims to be doing to feminized technology) they have to do more than sling around playground insults. If the Idiot Toys writer had said the phone was ‘camp’ then he’d have been on solid ground. If they’d said the press release was ‘wanky’ or ‘up itself’, there could be no argument. But the simplistic, and for some people offensive, branding of those things as ‘gay’ is neither accurate or humorous.
What the people who think “Oh just lighten up” are missing is the real hurt experienced by the people these negative stereotypes have been aimed at. Words can and do hurt people. Those who grow up gay and have to endure an atmosphere of casual homophobia as teenagers are entitled as grown ups to point out when people are being as dumb and hurtful as the 13 year olds they went to school with.
I find it tiresome to see that there are people who think they’re being funny by simplistically saying something is ‘gay’. It offends my sense of humor.
October 27th, 2005 at 8:51 pm
Things can be hurtful regardless of whether you’re gay or not. It’s a very rare person who’s never been teased about anything. The market being aimed for is the gay market. Thus, the comment is that the phone is gay. It’s that simple.
Of course the thing is that there are things that you say that offend people too. How many strict religious types would hate any of your opinions? You’d say they were wrong too, just as I’ll saying you’re wrong. The solution is simple. Don’t read it.
October 29th, 2005 at 11:32 pm
Is the phone being aimed at the gay market? I didn’t get that… where does it say that in the official release?