An "It Get's Better" Vid

[rabid1st]

Ganked this from thisficklemob.

Voted..NOT WORK SAFE for very explicit language. There are also a number of horrible things to call people, used for illustrative purposes, but still...

I liked that there was a post script for all kids who are different. I certainly qualified as a different kid in my youth as did many members of my family.

Comments

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I think School Spirit can work if it is more inclusive, allowing freaky people to have their say. I went to two high schools. In the first one I was isolated and outcast and in the second one I was part of a group. The group I joined was full of weird creative types and we branched out from the Yearbook Staff. As Yearbook Staff we interacted with the other groups, jocks, cheerleaders, band geeks, and while I'm not sure I was respected, I wasn't bullied by them. I was teased in the first school, but only because I stubbornly refused to interact with people. Me! Imagine! :grin:

One of the interesting things to note about this vid is that if you look at the women coming out, you will see a great cross-section of body types, but the men tend to be those who are easily identified as different. As she sings, "Ricky Martin, big surprise!" I find that very telling, because I think that there is a similarly diverse collection of body types among gay men, but we tend to only out those who are obviously less "manly" in behavior or physical characteristics. I wonder how many gay men just marry some woman to be "normal," ignoring their sexuality or going on the down low. Of course, as you know, it isn't just men that make that choice.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure school spirit can be done in a non-jerky way... but I found that the less people actually felt that high school itself was a big fucking deal, the less effort they cared to put into ruling it or running it or the pecking order of it. Y'know?

I dunno. I see what you're saying, but... is Billy Joe from Green Day easily ID'd as different? Ian McClellan? Obi Wan? Sure, Ricky Martin and Elton John fit stereotypes, but then, so do Ellen Degeneres and Rosie O'Donnell.

I think it is hard to be gay in Hollywood, either way. It's not just about personally being ready to come out, but whether studios will believe you're marketable if you do. I think there's a particular pressure on the big-name movie stars to be the embodiment of (straight) people's fantasies, that we just don't apply to musicians or even politicians. (Who face their own pressures, I'm sure.)