About My Attitude
For a variety of reasons, I very rarely go for magazines targeted at a gay audience. Despite this longstanding policy, I found myself unable to resist a recent issue of the Brit mag “Attitude”, for who should be on the cover but Prime Minister Tony Blair.
I bought the issue, and imagine my surprise when I found inside that not only was Tony featured, but so too were the leaders of the other major parties (that would be the LibDems and Tories, or if you’re the formal type, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.) All were stumping for votes and eager to prove that their parties had important and productive gay members.
I try to imagine Bush on the cover of “The Advocate” with Kerry and Nader inside, all trying to make themselves look like they’re the most gay-friendly, and my brain just shuts down: does not compute, it seems to be saying.
Instead we have things like this recent Houston Chronicle article:
TRENTON, N.J. – A millionaire businessman won New Jersey’s Republican primary Tuesday and will face Democratic Sen. Jon Corzine in November — the state’s first gubernatorial race since James McGreevey resigned in a gay-sex scandal.
Umm, a gay sex scandal? Howzat? Now McGreevey had an extramarital affair (with a man), yes. He may have improperly given his (male) lover a job and/or benefits, true. Yet had he done the same with a woman, would they even call it a sex scandal? No — because the scandal was corruption, not sex.
Clearly, we’ve got some catch-up to do.
June 8th, 2005 at 11:18 am
Eh? You are absolutely insane if you think it wouldn’t be referred to as a sex scandal if it had been a woman. There is no question the PROBLEM was corruption, but the SCANDAL was the sex, and it’s the scandal that sells the papers. Seriously, if you took the sex out of it, the story becomes a 12th page blurb between the movie theatre ad, and the coupon for the muffler shop. No writer or editor is going to pass up a chance to sex up a story, no matter how periferal it is.
Of course in a perfect world the stories and headlines would focus on the real crimes, and not who was rubbing naughty bits with who. Unfortunately in this country it seems tickling the wrong funny bones is a far bigger crime than ripping people off. I think it’s a product of the conservative media, yeah I said it, the media has a conservative bias, despite what stupid republicans claim.
June 8th, 2005 at 12:51 pm
My point was poorly expressed. Let me clarify: when Rudy Giuliani took up with another woman, even to the point where he wanted her to move into Gracie Mansion, nobody called it a sex scandal. It was a scandal, sure, adultery, and disrespect for the bonds of marriage and all that. But did anybody write the headline “Giuliani Ducks Questions About Sex Scandal”?
Update: Googlin’ around tells me that some people did call it a sex scandal, but at a far lower rate than McGreevey.
June 8th, 2005 at 1:40 pm
That’s the conservative media for you. Minimize the republicans indiscretions. BTW, lower rate meaning lower percentage of the total or a lower number of times it was called a sex scandal due to a lower total number of stories about it?