So, I'm going to be a fangirl or possibly just a flaming proud lezzie for a minute and tell you about Glee Tuesday night. It was called Born This Way and about loving yourself. They brought Kurt home to his old school (they just couldn't resist giving him more amazing outfits, I'm sure. At the other school, he had a uniform). Meanwhile, the closet lesbian, Santana, hooks up with the other gay guy, Dave, to pretend neither of them are. Kurt's prerequisite for coming home was that Dave would start a PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) group at school with him.
Everyone is told to make a shirt with a word or a phrase on it that sums up the part of them that they're most ashamed of, the thing that makes them different, and they'll sing/dance the title number by Lady Gaga. I've never listened to the original of this song before, only a different cover of it that has half the words removed. While most of the kids have shirts that say things like "Can't Sing" or "Brown Eyes" on them, the class idiot, Brittany, who's the only one who knows about Santana, gives her a shirt that says, "Lebanese". Santana says, "I'm Hispanic. Wait. Is this meant to say, 'Lesbian'?" Brittany replies, "Yeah. Isn't that what it says?" The funny thing about this is that Lebanese is mentioned in the song itself.
Kurt struts it on stage, singing the opening words in a shirt that says "Likes Boys" (I'd take a "Likes Girls"), the only shirt that's completely unashamed. Santana sits out, wearing her shirt
where no one can see her. The Trevor Project asked its Facebook fans whether they would buy or wear Kurt's shirt--I and 1,707 people 'liked' it.
And the song! It's amazing! I bought it and put it on single repeat. I'm up to a play count of 27 already. It's bouncy and it has a great message.
"A different lover is not a sin"
"No matter gay, straight, or bi/Lesbian, transgender life/I'm on the right
track, baby, I was born to survive"
"I'm beautiful in my way, 'cause God makes no mistakes"
"There's nothing wrong with loving who you are, she said, 'cause He made you
perfectly" (not in order)
A church near me holds a LGBT prom, which they've invited me to. If they play this song, I am so dancing on stage. I'm saying this out loud (well, you know what I mean) so that I can't chicken out.
Hey, look! Someone managed to post that scene. Watch! I'll admit Kurt looks a bit insane, and they cut my second quote above (it's in the version on iTunes, though) AND it's backwards and blurry, but it's worth it!
Related: I met a new friend on Facebook (become a fan) and started stalking her profile. Everything I read made me like her more. Now, her profile picture was Kurt and his boyfriend Blaine kissing.
Further down, I saw an event she attended that was about posting a same-sex kiss picture as your profile picture to protest one being marked as inappropriate content. I started looking at the pictures. My favorite? A picture that says at the top, "Jesus Loves You", and at the
bottom, pasted in, a picture of two guys kissing.
I cried. The next morning my glasses still had spots. It was captioned, "If you are a believer, I am not, but I leave this Christian image of a kiss and love." This has always been an issue for me, as I have always believed that I was, indeed, born this way.
Showing posts with label Glee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glee. Show all posts
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Gay or Trans?
Several days ago, Monday I think, I saw the latest episode of a TV show called Glee on Hulu.com. It was hilarious. I don't know how many times I watched the beginning. It started out with one of the characters, a boy, doing the Beyoncé Single Ladies dance, wearing a unitard. A boy doing a girly dance to a girly song in a girly outfit. You can imagine why it was so funny.
However, all praise aside, it wasn't entirely accurate. The point of the dance was to emphasize the character's femininity, since the character was gay. Except a guy doesn't have to be girly to be gay. That whole stereotype is more indicative of trans people.
I wasn't offended or anything, I could appreciate the humor, but I decided to use it to make a point.
Again, a few definitions are needed here. All these are defined as adjectives, but 'gay', 'transsexual', and 'transvestite' can all be used as nouns. That is, I write the definitions as descriptions (a gay person, a transsexual person), but you can also use them as definers (a gay, a transsexual) though that's not entirely polite.
Gay--to be solely attracted to people of the same biological sex.
Transsexual--to have had sex reassignment surgery. Some people don't identify as transsexual, rather they feel that they have become the opposite gender.
Transvestite--to dress as the opposite gender.
Transgender--to feel that one is actually a separate gender from one's biological gender. It can also include transvestite, transsexual, and intersex. When I say 'trans', I mean transgender.
Femme--feminine, girly.
Butch--masculine.
Trans people can be gay, bi, or straight. People happy with the gender they were born with can be gay, bi, or straight.
The guy on Glee (season 1, episode Preggers) was stereotypically femme, which ended in just about everybody knowing the truth without his telling them. But although it's certainly true that gay men can be femme, they can just as easily be butch. All the same, I do recommend the episode, and the previous one, Acafellas. Most any of us can identify with his difficulty coming out, even if not with his dress sense.
Who would have guessed I was anything but completely straight, the way I talk about guys? I do like to dance with them, and I do find them handsome, but a girl can get into my blood the way no guy so far has. I'm not taking a definitive label yet, but that's okay. I know who I am. I'm Phoenix Tawnyflower.
However, all praise aside, it wasn't entirely accurate. The point of the dance was to emphasize the character's femininity, since the character was gay. Except a guy doesn't have to be girly to be gay. That whole stereotype is more indicative of trans people.
I wasn't offended or anything, I could appreciate the humor, but I decided to use it to make a point.
Again, a few definitions are needed here. All these are defined as adjectives, but 'gay', 'transsexual', and 'transvestite' can all be used as nouns. That is, I write the definitions as descriptions (a gay person, a transsexual person), but you can also use them as definers (a gay, a transsexual) though that's not entirely polite.
Gay--to be solely attracted to people of the same biological sex.
Transsexual--to have had sex reassignment surgery. Some people don't identify as transsexual, rather they feel that they have become the opposite gender.
Transvestite--to dress as the opposite gender.
Transgender--to feel that one is actually a separate gender from one's biological gender. It can also include transvestite, transsexual, and intersex. When I say 'trans', I mean transgender.
Femme--feminine, girly.
Butch--masculine.
Trans people can be gay, bi, or straight. People happy with the gender they were born with can be gay, bi, or straight.
The guy on Glee (season 1, episode Preggers) was stereotypically femme, which ended in just about everybody knowing the truth without his telling them. But although it's certainly true that gay men can be femme, they can just as easily be butch. All the same, I do recommend the episode, and the previous one, Acafellas. Most any of us can identify with his difficulty coming out, even if not with his dress sense.
Who would have guessed I was anything but completely straight, the way I talk about guys? I do like to dance with them, and I do find them handsome, but a girl can get into my blood the way no guy so far has. I'm not taking a definitive label yet, but that's okay. I know who I am. I'm Phoenix Tawnyflower.
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