LGBTQI Thread - An Ode to Bisexuals

[Jace, Extat]

karradin, I do not have the right to say that I am personally affected by this type of stuff, but I have to ask a question at least academically.

Do you judge an actor as a person based on a character they portray? Is Leo DiCaprio a racist because he pretended to be one as Calvin Candie in 'Django Unchained'?

I absolutely buy into the fact that Eminem has a certain responsibility for the people he's influenced into making negative comments on other peoples' sexuality/gender/etc.. , but isn't it our domain (as the part of humanity that falls on the + side of the IQ average) to recognize that there's a difference between a stage character and who you actually are?

To be as clear as possible, I have no real interest in defending Eminem, he's made his bed, but I think this might be a relative question.

[Robin Of House Hill]

Portraying a character in a drama is not the same as using hate speech in music.

[brook]

grr double post, sorry

[brook]

Eminen is not playing a stage character. There is no boundary between character and actor we are supposed to understand here. He is playing himself, and making decisions about the way he chooses to represent himself.

The effect on our culture and society is identical if eminen is a closet gay man, or if he's actually deeply homophobic or if he's not at all homophobic personally but thinks presenting this way will help him sell more.

[felice]

Calvin Candie is very clearly a totally different person from the actor portraying him, and fills a necessary role in a story, presumably as an antagonist we're supposed to hate; while to the uncertain extent that Eminem's stage persona is distinct from who he really is as a person, it's an act designed to be as appealing as possible to the target audience in order to sell records, and it's a stand-alone performance that doesn't have any role to play other than being appealing. Pandering to and reinforcing bigotry as a performer is utterly different from playing an evil character in a story.

[Jace, Extat]

Fair enough. I still think there's a difference there, but I definitely concede the point.

[karaddin]

On top of the above points I'd almost make a couple more.

I would judge people involved in a movie in this day and age that portrays lgbtqi people in a negative fashion intended to provoke hatred against them, or attempting to sell to those that already do and not caring about the harm done.

Secondly:

but isn't it our domain (as the part of humanity that falls on the + side of the IQ average) to recognize that there's a difference between a stage character and who you actually are?

While this may be true for those of us engaging in this discussion in an academic sense (and please remember that isn't even true for some of us, it's not for me*) the people being harmed by these portrayals are not necessarily in the above average intelligence group, or possessing the maturity or emotional space to calmly think it through like that. Look at the last couple of suicides linked in this thread, you can't expect that level of detachment and intelligence from a young teenager so alienated they are near the tipping point for suicide.

*My personal example of a single case of popular media hurting me is the song Sex Changes by The Dresden Dolls. Due to Amanda Palmers left wing profile and pro gay views I was more vulnerable to this negative message about trans people and it shut down my own internal contemplation of my gender identity for a year or two. I don't know I can explain better why, but this really hurt me from a supposedly lgbtqi friendly artist.

[Sci-2]

I think the problem with Eminem is not just that he uses "f*ggot" as a pejorative - he's also using [it] specifically to mean queer persons and goes out of his way to make that clear.

So even the weak defense that "f*ggot" can refer to straight people isn't there, as he makes clear to present being straight as strong and worthy of respect while being gay means you should get a table broken over your head.

[Robin Of House Hill]

I've just had the misfortune of seeing a video of a gay person being burned to death in either Uganda or Nigeria (location is uncertain). I'm not providing a link.

[Kat]

Closing for thread length; please start a new thread.