That's So Gay!

» jerrib - Pretty emotional article

Do second graders even understand what they are saying? Jerri

-- posted by jerrib

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» pentimento - Re: Pretty emotional article

In response to message posted by jerrib:I can't speak for all second graders... but I can speak for myself when I was in second grade. A friend and I used to take piano lessons from the same teacher who had a 3 or 4 year old son. After the lesson, while waiting on my parents, my friend and I would play with her son. And I remember we came up with this saying, "I'm a faggoteer" that we taught the son to say. We were very amused with ourselves because we knew that we were getting the kid to say really bad things about himself... worse than the "N" word was how my friend put it. I had no idea about heterosexual sex and of course had no idea about homosexual sex or bisexuality or polygamous relationships or anything like that. But I did know that that was a really bad thing to be.

So, to your question... I think that second graders are very aware that what they are saying is a condemnation.

Do they understand what "gay" is... I think that depends on their parents, their teachers, and other people in their lives... If their parents have big issues with homosexuality (say for example, Fred Phelps, the minsiter from Kansas who has been accused of child molestation and who takes members of his group around the country to protest everything from funerals to parades with signs that say, "God hates fags" Now his kids and the kids of his followers probably have a pretty good idea of what they think fags are.... And I know that my Godchild, by the time she is in second grade, will have an idea about what homosexuals, gay, lesbians and transgendered people are because her mother will explain it to her in a way that makes sense....

So, if you explain the concept of same sex couples to your children in a respectful manner, they will probably not go around saying, "that's so gay" as an insult.

-- posted by pentimento

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» Olivia32 - And what about trans-phobia...

Hateful action seem to be on the rise in our land, unfortunately fuelled by the gestapo-christian rhetoric of the religious right. This carries through to even the young children, who for the nonce are merely imitating their elders.

What alarms me, as a transgendered woman, is the fact that we as a sub-group have even less respect -- and fewer rights -- than straights or gays. In fact, we are often assailed from both those fronts...

What it comes down to, however, is that we are no longer educating our children. We are allowing them to be taught by institutions rather than people, without a sense of morality or even of style, and so the humanity is slowly being drained from them, only to be replaced by generalization, archetyping, and cruel misconception.

And who suffers the most? Women. The second-class-citizens of our pseudo-macho society. And lumped in with genetic women are trans-women and gay males, who are perceived as being "no better than" women by the brutish males who "lead" our society.

Gay-bashing is only the tip of the iceberg. One begins to see the great mass of prejudice and insecurity-fuelled hate behind it when second-graders begin to unthinkingly spout its rhetoric.

Just remember: today's student is the leader of tomorrow...

Olivia Evans

-- posted by Olivia32

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» pentimento - Re: And what about trans-phobia...

In response to message posted by Olivia32:

You are right about trans-phobia. The idea that someone doesn't merely chose to live outside the box but chooses to change boxes when it comes down to to the "gender code" seems to really threaten people. Any child who doesn't display appropriate gender behavior is subject to attack, especially if no one has taught that child that such behavior is wrong.

Few parents, few people, know how to respond appropriately to someone who is different and children internalize that response.

Thanks for sharing your piece.

Regina Sewell

-- posted by pentimento

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» pentimento - Re: And what about trans-phobia...

In response to message posted by Olivia32:

You are right about trans-phobia. The idea that someone doesn't merely chose to live outside the box but chooses to change boxes when it comes down to to the "gender code" seems to really threaten people. Any child who doesn't display appropriate gender behavior is subject to attack, especially if no one has taught that child that such behavior is wrong.

Few parents, few people, know how to respond appropriately to someone who is different and children internalize that response.

Thanks for sharing your piece.

Regina Sewell

-- posted by pentimento

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» THEpiab - AWESOME!

What a terrific article, one that needed to be written! I never thought about the source of homophobia possibly being misogyny. As always, you wrote a great article, Regina.

-- posted by THEpiab

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» Chipka001 - That's So...Spot ON

Greetings:
I just read the article on homophobia and blatant sexism against women...and I must say, that even though I can barely spell misogyny (I probably spelled it wrong here) I have always thought that homophobia was little more than that--I'm a gay guy, and many of my friends are lesbians, and what I noticed the most in homophobia was the simple fact that Lesbians tend to "offend" some straight people, because they are viewed as trying to be "masculine" as if that's something to aspire to, and gay men offend straights, just as much, because they ARE masculine and trying to give it up...needless to say, that made me totally angry, and its a fantastic thing to see that someone else has had the same basic thought, and has had the guts to present this opinion in a way that is effective and engaging. I just thought I'd say that, and I look forward to reading more.

Best Regards
Chipka

-- posted by Chipka001

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