The days of innocence
I remember when the village people weren't considered gay. That's right. A cop, Indian, construction worker, cowboy and biker were all considered macho back in the day. Most people didn't imagine these guys doing the fecal fandango.
I think we were all happier not knowing it too.
This was back when CB radio was cool. Remember Convoy? 10-4 good buddy? That became a gay pick up line.
Everyone suspected Liberace took it up the ole stove pipe but we could suspend reality and pretend he was just a really happy guy.
The thing that broke the innocence for me was when Rock Hudson and Jim Nabors supposedly played hide the salami. That was the end of an era. Nothing was left to the imagination after that. Gawwl leeee.
That was the equivalent of Captain Kangaroo doing a snuff film with Mr Moose in a room full of ping pong balls. Good morning Captain indeed!
I would have preferred not knowing about all this stuff and always before the media had enough class not to throw crap like that up in our faces.
People like Charles Nelson Riley and Paul Lynde were funny as hell. Yeah we all suspected they were fruits but they had the cool fag thing going on. It just wasn't classy to point those things out.
The true end of it all was George Michael (wake me up before you go go) to me that was about the most putrid thing on the planet for a hetero 14 year old to watch on MTV.
People outing themselves become vogue in the early 90's. Along with the bi-sexual thing.
What the hell is that all about? Do they flip a coin or something? I'm sorry either you are gay or not. I just don't see how people flip flop back and forth.
Well, nevertheless the cat is out of the bag now and we just have to deal with all these complicated social idiosyncrasies.
Update: Just in case some people don't get me just yet I'll post this up front:
Celebrities, were much more likable when their sex lives weren't plastered over every tabloid and TV talk show. I don't think anyones bedroom business is good publicity. I like actors and performers just fine without knowing every detail of their personal lives.
Labels: Personal interest, Society
posted by Bill Rowland @ November 08, 2006
29 Comments
29 Comments:
wait a second here! would you not like me if I was gay? is that what you are saying? ;]
lol. Gay celebrities were much more likable when their sex lives weren't plastered over every tabloid and TV talk show.
The same goes for heteros. I don't think anyones bedroom business is good publicity. I like actors and performers just fine without knowing every detail of their personal lives.
I agree that celebrity sex lives should be a non-issue. Who you sleep with has nothing to do with how well you act or sing. Maybe that's why celebrity marriages annoy me, but I also think they may be the American equivalent to royalty.
I always thought The Village People and Liberace were gay. I don't see how in the hell "10-4, good buddy" is a gay pickup line. I think you made the Jim Nabors thing up to scare me. And I don't know who Charles Nelson Riley or Paul Lynde are, so I'm about to go ask my good friend Google.
I'm not sure why bisexuality confuses so many people. Some people are just wired to find both men and women attractive. Men and women are physically different, after all, and I don't see why the idea that you can only find one attractive should be a hard and fast rule. And for some, it's actually what is called pansexuality. For pansexuals, body parts aren't the issue. They are attracted to individuals, regardless of what their plumbing is.
OH! That's Paul Lynde! How did I not know about him being gay? That smile is one of the gayest things on earth.
I saw some pictures, but I still have no real idea who Charles Nelson Riley is. I don't know if he's gay, but he looks like Geek of the Year.
I'm resisting the urge to post the link for Famous Homosexuals, but only because you're such a cool blogger, Hammer. I try not to torture the people I like.
While I think that homosexuals (I refuse to call them by their label of choice and demean a perfectly good word) are indeed what they are: deviants, I don't really give a crap that they like to bump uglies with members of the same gender.
I do, however, mind when they prance around demanding special considerations. That includes the whole marriage thing. I guess if I was single, and had a roommate that was a lifelong friend, I'd find the idea of homosexual marriage appealing. I could make out like a bandit! We could claim that we're homosexual, and then get all the benefits of marriage. What a load of crap.
Ellen degenerate really broke the cherry of "coming out." What a circus it has become since then. Whatever professional liars choose to do behind closed doors should not be the news of the day.
Phoenix, thanks for not posting the list. I'm sure I don't want to know some of em.
I guess the Doogie Houser coming out just reminded me of the times when that kind of stuff was nobodies business.
As far as pan-sexual thing goes I guess it is possible to love someone of either sex, but I'm not sure where the line is drawn to want to gratify that person.
Jarhead: I agree it is a circus. I'm having trouble explaining it to my kids, thye aren't even old enough for the birds and the bees and due to mass media I'm facing the prospect of explaining the birds and the birds.
Let's get rid of all these airy fairy euphemisms. Sodomite instead of gay.
So when somebody comes out, they say,
"mum,dad, I'm a sodomite". Doesn't sound so innocent does it?
And as for celebrities, who cares if they specialize in sodomy,cunnilingus,fellatio,coprophilia,
anal sex? Do we really want to know?
Yeah, I read the thing about Neil Patrick Harris in the news the other day. What really gets me is that, from what I read, he came out about being gay because he was tired of the media trying to butt into his private life and speculating about what girl he was seeing. That says to me that he'd have been happy to keep it to himself if other people had been happy to keep their nose out of his business. It even made me think, "Maybe he's not gay. Maybe he just said that so they'd go away." That's something I'd do. Kind of like I don't worship Satan, but I've been tempted to tell a few people who knocked at my door that I do.
Oh sweet pogostick of doom! I didn't know what coprophilia is. I was mentally confusing it with coprolalia. I googled it. I may never feel safe using google again.
I agree with you 110% If the sex-life doesn't belong to the privacy, what is the "private life".
I'm not interested at all how other people do it with whom...and I don't need to watch porno to remember how to do it or get new ideas. I have fantacy enough with-out.
And you can still catch Charles Nelson Reilly in his prime on Match Game on the Game Show Network.
I like watching it sometimes, because he smoked a pipe, right there in the studio, on television, and no one cared.
Doogie Houser is gay??? What about that bit in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle when he's talking about going out to find some trim?
I'm SO with you on this one. I think it's irritating as shit to know too many details of people's intimate lives, and although I've liked a lot of Madonna's music, I think the over-sexualization of her image has turned her into a woman who is having a real struggle to maintain that image - it gets rather pathetic, ultimately.
In fact, the sex obsession says something more depressing about western civilization. When I've gone to Europe, I've marveled at the openly depraved parts of cities where prostitution is legal, and I think that's a terrible road to travel, because I think it destroys people. If not the customers, then at the very least, the men and women who sell their bodies. The question no one asks but we all need to is why are we here, and is sex THAT much an important part of life? I know it rates, that it IS important, but aren't we here for something more? Or shouldn't we be? Sorry, that turned into a ramble, didn't it?
Hammer!
What the hell are you trying to tell us here?! Is there something we should know?
Flyinfox_SATX
P.S. - to the rest of you, I have always suspected Hammer of being a closet celebrity and he has just not come out and admitted it.
Phlegmfatale: I agree we have a sex obsessed society. There seems to be be no happy medium.
Flyinfox: If I was a closet celebrity I would hire someone to write this blog for me ;)
Too many issues that should remain private have become public fodder. Sexual preference, as well as practice even between heteros, should be subjected to don't ask; don't tell. I also don't want to hear your (using the word "your" for general population) preferences on religion. What happened to privacy for us all?
On another note, Ham, ya do have alot of fans!!!!
Celebrity infatuation sells simply because communities have been separated into neighborhoods with fences and homeowners associations, and people who work together, live far apart. Celebrity infatuation occurs because people have a strong need for community. By knowing the "same people" we are all brought closer together communally and feel more comfortable within our fragmented lives.
If we can all talk about the same thing i.e. did you hear that when Liberave died, Rock Hudson rolled over in his grave? Then we can all find common ground and instantly relate.
This is all just simple sociological pathology folks. Nothing new, here.
I agree with you hammer about keeping that stuff to themselves. I don't really care or want to know these things. I feel the same way about heterosexuals, I don't want to know about all of their private sexual busines either.
Jamming things up your ass is unnatural. They can do as they please as long as they would please not make me watch. Unnatural. Simple as that.
I agree with NoMasCorporate about not wanting to hear about religion, either. The only problem there is that, for a lot of people, prosletyzing is such a part of their religion that they don't believe they can be a good Cabbage Head Worshipper, or whatever, unless they do it. However, you don't gay to gay hell for not converting people.
I also think Scott from Orgeon has a good point about the sense of community. Apparently, it's just a community I've never felt an urge to be a part of. When Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman divorced, a friend called me to ask, "Did you hear Tom and Nicole split up?" I strarted trying to figure out who we went to school with named Tom and Nicole, and when they might have gotten married. It wasn't that I was living under a rock. It was that a celebrity marriage mattered so little to me that it wasn't what I first thought of.
Nomascorporate: Very good point. there are a ton of people I've met and respected until they forcefully dropped the god bomb on me and told me I was going to hell unless I was saved.
Scott: Very good point. I read recently that in psychological studies the human brain often releases the same chemicals during TV shows as it does when meeting close friends. I'm not a big TV watcher by any means but I am still exposed to this stuff daily through other sources.
Mrsjosegoldbloom: You are correct of course. I hate hearing about the hetero exploits as well.
JP: I don't want to watch that either..what channel is that on again ;)
The same thing happened to me when kurt cobain french kissed his shotgun. I had all kinds of people
call me up that day "Kurt cobain died! oh my god" I didn't want to sound insensitive but for the life of me I was trying to figure out who the hell I knew by that name.
oh shit...Kurt's dead? I just saw his mother and father the other day at Walmart. Too bad.
I probably wasn't old enough to hear it at the time - how did all of these people become famous, aside from looking good on film? And why the hell do we give a crap about their lives if they aren't one of the more powerful forces in the country?
That aside, I don't really care about who you're attracted to as long as:
A) you don't do the stuff that should take place in the bedroom in front of me. I'm not puritanical by a long shot but I have my limits.
B) you both understand what you're getting into and nothing is abusive or coerced.
And someone please explain to a youngster why we look up to celebrities as heroes if they haven't really done heroic stuff.
- ISU Tinkerer
I guess so many people look up to celebrities as if they were heroes because what we see of their lives reflects what many people have been taught is important. Aside from things your family may tell you, boys just aren't taught that holding a steady job and being a good husband, father, and neighbor is important. Girls aren't taught that you'll go far in life if you can cook a good meal, give a warm hug, and have the brains to know when somebody's just causing trouble and not pass along the gossip. Society teaches kids that looking good, being popular, and having enough money to do what you want when you want, even if it means paying people off for things you *shouldn't* have done, are what get you through in the world. And you can't really blame them for buying into it. On one side, you have a handful of relatives who never did all these exciting things in life. On the other side, you have a world full of the "cool" people.
I have gay friends, but they aren't the wacko type and we don't talk about it. Those folks making all the noise and just hurting themselves and all other gays.
BTW... There are two types of gays. There are natural gays, you never hear them making any noise. Then you have the psychological crackpots.
Them and the stupid media are what is bothering you.
Good post ISU. The reason I mentioned these celebrities is because all the examples I referred to were in my formative years between six and ten years old.
I was raised on TV and around people that talked about it all the time. I found out what these did in the bedroom before I knew that people didn't just sleep in there.
Rock Hudson... all those movies with Doris Day and then you find out he's gay. I could have lived a lifetime without knowing that.
The funny thing is that there was a joke going around maybe '65, '66. Rock Hudson married Gomer Pyle and changed his name to Rock Pyle. As six year olds we thought the name joke was hilarious and knew the man-man thing was off but so what - the punch line was worth it. We didn't know from gay then and I was reminded of the joke which wasn't so much of one when Rock came out. To be honest - I think there are truly gay people who can't help it and then there are people who just like sex and don't care how they get it. They aren't really bi - they're omni-sexuals. But what the heck do I know? I'm straight and monogamous for 28 years.
You know, I'll go one further, scott and hammer - it's like celebrity culture is the larger-scale version of the popular jocks and cheerleaders in school, including the intrigue of note-passing and gossiping about hook-ups and break-ups. Great analysis, scott. It takes us outside of ourselves, I suppose. But one thing about the town tramp and the bad boy is although they've always had at least limited outsider appeal, they were never celebrated as iconoclasts until modern times, really. Hester Prynne never caught a break in The Scarlet Letter, but modern filmdom tried to re-mold her into a sexy heroine in the form of Demi Moore. These are interesting times, but what was the old proverb about being blessed not to live in interesting times?
Queen--the absolute best band of the 70's and 80's, Freddie Mercury was a genius. Queen--hmmm...obvious when I think about it now, but none of us got it at the time. Funny isn't it? I watched show on VH1 about the band about a month ago. Apparently, their contract stated that they weren't allowed to oficially admit to being homosexual. Big no no at the time I guess. Maybe that was a good decision in retrospect though, because they probably would have been labeled as a bunch of faggots and booed off the stage (in the US at least). What a tragedy that would have been!
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