Pride month is
upon us, which means more images than ever of white,
shirtless, ripped young men. This white young gay male has
had quite enough.
Satre is a junior at Notre Dame Academy, a private
Catholic high school in Middleburg, Va., and the
founder of the Virginia LGBT activist group
Equality Fauquier-Culpeper. He writes regular journal
entries for The Advocate.
Sex.
Excellent; I now
have your attention.
We’re
comfortable with that word by now, aren’t we? I am
pretty sure society has defied the traditional values
of the near embarrassment of a flushed face when that
haunting three-letter word is mentioned. We see it
everywhere we go. Every day of our lives we are faced with
an appeal to our attractions through television
programs, movies, fashion, the Internet,
advertisements, and even our own gay media outlets. When is
the last time you flipped through a copy of your
favorite gay and lesbian newsmagazine and
didn’t see a half naked—or, for that matter,
completely naked—white, skinny, muscled male in
as promiscuous and lustful a pose as possible?
I have outgrown
the tolerance of seeing these advertisements consistently
making headlines and racing to the most important reason for
buying a magazine. The gay and lesbian community has
fallen victim to the media feeding the flames of
stereotypes of promiscuity and the typical shirtless
white masculine man that we see in every major gay
publication.
Last year I went
to the fourth largest pride event in the country and the
largest one-day street festival in Washington, D.C.: Capital
Pride. I found that my eyes were the eyes of the
media. All I could see was nudity, promiscuity, and a
plethora of free condoms. Little did I know my
ignorance was not bliss; I was blinded by my own attraction.
Realistically, only 2% of the people at Capital Pride ripped
off their clothes to show their arrogance for being a
stereotype. The media and I missed the other 98%,
where the celebration of traditional family values was
prominent among the various people in the crowd.
This year Capital
Pride’s theme—“Many Communities, All
Proud”—will truly reflect the pride of
family and the explicit examples of human diversity.
The media should follow suit.
Are we obliged to
cater to the unnecessary and ill-conceived notion that
gay people are truly promiscuous? With every “hot guy
of the day” and every advertisement with a
gorgeous, air-brushed, six-packed, blond guy oozing
over another nearly nude male we are shooting ourselves in
the foot. Despite the fact that gay people are not
alone in using sex appeal, it is a fact that gays are
so often targeted for these types of images that is
problematic. We are not selling news; we are selling sex.
Let’s
embrace this year’s motto of Capital Pride:
“Many Communities, All Proud.”
Let’s pick up our shields of dignity and guard
ourselves from the very types of things that we are
scolded for in the antigay press.
Let’s stop
showing the world that the gay community is the white
air-brushed well-built stud who looks like he has used
steroids since he was a teenager. We should publish
the news with a human face, not a human body.
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Satre can be reached at tully@efcva.org and
via MySpace.com.