Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Ace: 'Foam-flecked buffoon' Sullivan doesn't have 'stupid queerbait readers'

Sorry, Ace, I disagree with your walkback. If "queerbait" is a homophobic putdown, it's a putdown that a lot of gay guys employ, generally to describe an ostensibly straight guy who seems . . . well, potentially available.

Like Charlie Crist. Or Rahm Emanuel, so my gay sources tell me. And those same sources say that gay men in Chicago swear there used to be a tall semi-Kenyan guy who was, as we might say, no stranger to the community.

But that stuff is mere gossip, and is not germaine to the question of whether it was fair of you to use "queerbait" to describe Sully's readership. The larger point, I think, is that not all gay people run around looking for excuses to be offended, and are themselves not averse to applying certain pejoratives -- "nelly," "swish" etc. -- to other gay people, especially ones they don't like.

And as for "queerbaits," who doesn't know the type of person described? I just noticed Little Miss Attila referencing a post by Cynthia Yockey about appropriate use of the term "dyke." Well, not all lesbians are dykes, and some women who look or act like dykes are actually straight.

If we didn't all have our insensitivity detectors set on "stun," tiptoeing around in fear of accidentally offending someone, maybe more people would be encouraged to criticize Sullivan's ongoing melodrama -- and the stupid queerbait readers who dig it.

Andrew Sullivan was outed by Michelangelo Signorile and, rather than leading Sully to question the hyper-politicization of sexuality, the experience led him to become SuperGayMan, the caped crusader for same-sex marriage. Sully let himself be trapped in a box, defined by his enemies, taking refuge in a ridiculous more-gay-than-thou stance.

His sexual persona is intrinsic to his politics and vice-versa. You know who he reminds me of? Bill Maher, who hates feminism and Christianity with equal fury because both belief-systems stand opposed to selfish little worms like Bill Maher gettin' some.

So I don't think you should have walked back the "queerbait" putdown, Ace. The rest of your critique of Sully is pure genius.

P.S.: To any readers intrigued by my assertion of familiarity with gay culture: (a) I majored in drama in college, (b) I was once the only straight guy working in the men's wear department of a department store, and (c) I hang out with lots of libertarians. However, (d) my wife and I have been married 20 years with six kids. If I'm overcompensating, I'm doing it right.

P.P.S.: Meredith Baxter gay? That's a big loss for the team. But what about her 15-year marriage to David Birney? Was she just fakin' it? Her inner lesbian straining for release? And why didn't her inner lesbian break free earlier, say about 1982, in a video with Phoebe Cates?

Never mind . . .

8 comments:

  1. Quoting Ms. Birney:

    "I was involved with people who made me think they're the problem. It never occurred to me, that it was me."

    'It never occured to me that the problem was me.' Do you realize how egocentric that is? It's great she finally realizes that she was the problem in her failed marriages and other relationships (do you realize how rare that is?), but even in doing so she blames her various partners, because they made her think the problem was them.(?!) Those unfeeling assholes!

    I'll bet they did. Anything to get her out of their hair.

    Typical wack job.

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  2. Patterico is taking you way too seriously:

    Comment by Patterico on 12/16 @ 9:18 pm #

    “It’s just a low down crying shame we are doing this over RSM. This dude is really not worth it. he’s a guy we can win without.”

    The guy who suggested a bumper sticker that reads “Have you whipped your slaves today?” He’s Jeff Goldstein’s bestest buddy!

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  3. I don't think Sullivan was "outed" by Signorile. Signorile exposed his involvement with online sex personals, but Sully was public with his homosexuality long before that, at least since 1995, when Virtually Normal was published.

    PHIL P.

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  4. I never pegged the Obamessiah for being on the down low. Interesting.

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  5. Your comparison of him to Maher is off, if the post is pointing out that Sully is a SuperGayMan, that he is supporting extreme identity politics, while Maher is against Christianity and Feminism, both of which involve identity politics.

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  6. that stuff is mere gossip, and is not germaine to the question of whether it was fair of you to use "queerbait" to describe Sully's readership.


    I don't know exactly what is going on over there, but that blog seems to be showing the early symptoms of Johnsons Disease. This is a recent comment by Ace on a thread in which he went ballistic over "white mans privilige".


    "You -- and me -- are part of the dominant group here. You cannot stigmatize the dominant group very easily! You cannot say, "Ha-ha, he is so similar to those other six people he's width! Ha-ha, he is so very much alike in race and sexuality to the overwhelming number of people at this school!"

    People aren't picked on because they're the SAME. They are picked on for their differences.

    We even make up fake differences. Hey, this girl has COOTIES! This girl is different, in that she is victim of an invented disease! (Yeah -- I know, lice are real, but I didn't even know cooties were lice until later.)

    If you are a straight white male, I am sure you have been picked on for being different, but it was for being fat, or nearsighted, or... well, Christian.

    But I'm pretty sure you have not been picked on and stigmatized for being straight, or white, or male. At least not often -- in order for that to happen, you have to be in a situation where you are in fact the minority and the dominant group can now point your difference and mock you for it."

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  7. I disagree with other comments. Your attack on Bill "The Dogface Boy" Maher was on target. Maher hates Christianity, Feminism and anything else that keeps him from the booze, drugs, and hookers. He also hates paying taxes because a guy that ugly needs lots of money to get laid.

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  8. No, Anonymous, I'm pretty sure Stacy is taking fire on account of being white. Shucks, if he was black and wrote stuff like all these idiots claim he did, nobody on the left would even blink.

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