Fuck You, Paula Zahn!!

[trancer21]

I'm waiting in Dallas for my next flight and the tv screen in the gate lobby has CNN on, and the current topic is Brokeback Mountain which, although I really wanna see but not as much as Transamerica, I'm really fucking tired of hearing about. It's got gay cowboys, okay, can we move on please!!

But there's Paula Zahn, who I can't fucking stand, and if she said the phrase "gay lifestyle" one more fucking time I was gonna probably get arrested. Then, there's Michael Medved who used to be kinda cool and has now turned into some kind of Conservative patsy mouthpiece brandishing the phrase "Liberal Hollywood" like a sword. Because, as we all know, if you say it enough times then it must be true. If Hollywood's soo damn liberal, why isn't there a series on one of the major networks with a lesbian lead? Or a gay lead outside of an asexual Will?

And the slugline reads "Is Middle America Ready for Gay Cowboys?". And I'm seething in my seat, grinding my teeth to bloody nubs because I'm soo fucking tired of people asking what Middle America is or isn't ready for. Hey, why isn't anyone asking if "Outer America" is ready for Conservative Oppression? 'Cuz I sure the Hell am not.

But, what really bugs me is the condescending tone of the question. I admit, I am not a Middle American but I was raised in Middle America, my family still lives there, and I get really fucking tired of the "Conservative Media" portraying Middle America as if it were populated with barely functioning, wide-eyed and innocent naifs who, were it not for the Conservative Watchdogs telling them what to think, would accidentally walk into a movie about Gay Cowboys. What bugs me is these Conservative Pundits act like *choice* isn't an option. That were it not for them, OH NOES, Middle America might actually go see a movie about gay cowboys - and like it!! What bugs me is it's not really about what an individual wants or does not want to watch, but the need to decide what *everyone* should or should not watch. It's about Conservative Pundits using hyperbole, fear, and hysteria to leap frog their way up the power structure for no one's benefit other than their own.

Comments

[sravenk.livejournal.com]

I'm soo fucking tired of people asking what Middle America is or isn't ready for. Hey, why isn't anyone asking if "Outer America" is ready for Conservative Oppression? 'Cuz I sure the Hell am not.

WORD! And also? Fuck yeah! You just perfectly outlined what has been bugging the fuck out of me for like ever. Gah! And also, you rock.

[trancer21.livejournal.com]

I just feel humans are creatures of habit and are all about maintaining the status quo. Regardless of whether it's good for them or not. So, when someone asks if 'Middle America is ready for *insert x*', I keep thinking, Middle America is never ready for anything that's perceived as shaking the status quo. Progression has never been blithely accepted, it's been fought for, constantly. If it were up to "Middle America" women wouldn't be able to vote, or work outside the home; minorities would be invisible and still slaves in some parts; and gay would still be a word used to mean nothing more than 'happy'. And this doesn't even include the ethnic discrimnation between caucasion groups, let alone religion.

That there are those who would rather move us backwards, to a place/time of an American utopia based more upon revisionist nostalgia and one that never actually existed than allow those of us outside the status quo to live freely, and equally (not "specially"), just makes me seethe!

God, I could rant about this all damn day!!

[sravenk.livejournal.com]

Oh, so could I. What gets me is the implication that *insert x* represents a change to the so-called status quo. Queers may be invisible, or forcibly erased, rather, but that doesn't mean we don't exist. So asking whether Middle fucking America is "ready" for us is so intensely offensive it *kills* me. Like I need their permission to exist?! As though by mere existence we are causing some sort of great fissure in the oh-so-stable (by which I mean not stable at all) way of life of this vague assembly referred to as Middle America, which itself, as you pointed out, is a myth. When people ask "Is Middle America ready for gay cowboys" they are really asking "Are we ready to stop allowing a whole segment of our society to be erased, discriminated against, kicked down, bashed, murdered, raped, and otherwise brutalized?" And the answer implied in the question is "no," but to deflect the shame for that obviously unacceptable answer from those asking it, the responsibility is shifted to this mythological creature called Middle America.

And yeah, I could go on and on, too, but really, you already outlined my thoughts on the matter very well. Gar!

[oracledelphi617.livejournal.com]

Hey, I randomly saw one of your 'butch in a box' pics and followed the link...

And yea, I'm from middle America. I escaped, but I grew up and came out and only suffered slightly for the experience. Where do people think Chicago is located, anyway? It's a fairly liberal city, considering that most of the surrounding area is rather conservative. (I'm sorry, but I'm from around there, so I hate to say that some of the hype about conservatives in the midwest is smack-on when it comes to Illinois.)

That being said, every movie theater with more than 3 screens in my hometown area did show Brokeback Mountain, and the first three weeks sold out every time.

Paula Zahn makes me feel violence in my heart...