Attn. gender roles: YOU FAIL.

[melengro]

Things that make me 'gay', 'effeminate' or both according to a stupid person of my acquaintance who shall remain nameless:

• Crying at movies that are supposed to make one cry.
• Not liking red meat.
• Picking and arranging flowers.
• Reading 'Ministering Angels'*.
• Various gestures that I occasionally make that apparently count as 'mincing'.

Comments

[brewsternorth]

In conclusion, these sorts of assumptions about sex and gender need to fuck off and die and let people be exactly as masculine or feminine as they damn well please.

So very much agreed with you. (Does listening to male artist Moby's latest offering make me masculine, just because he's a male artist? Pfui.) Also, agreed on the Last Battle genderfail. I was *not* impressed with how he wrote out Susan, just to score 'moral' points against the Youth of Today.

[melengro]

I think even using Susan for that at all was kind of fail. There were actually other characters who in my opinion would have made more sense for that--Peter's superciliousness struck me as more in that direction than any aspect of Susan's personality.

[brewsternorth]

That's true. Susan struck me in "Wardrobe" as being rather more the compassionate sort - it would be more IC for Peter, missing his "kingdom", to go after earthly power and miss the whole point of Narnia. Also, it would contrast with subsequent King Caspian's initial turning down of his being nominated for the throne.

/edited for better grammar and icon

[melengro]

As I said part of the reason Lewis is so fascinating and in some ways part of the reason why he's so appealing to me is that, to paraphrase Blake, 'win and fail are woven wine' in his work. If he had gone down that path with Peter it could have been something darkly brilliant; since he used Susan it just turned into another 'wicked woman' cliche (though not as bad as some) and fell flat.

[the_sun_is_up]

Not liking red meat.

???

Listening to music by female artists. I AM FUCKING SERIOUS.

???!?!?!?!!?!??

What an idiot. And I approve of guys who cry at sad movies.

[the_sun_is_up]

Also, just tell this person that you think lesbians are hot. That alone should be enough to establish your straight-maleness!

[melengro]

Actually, no. My friends (by which I mean my real friends, not this douchebag) established long ago that I myself am in fact, not a straight male, but a lesbian (a femme lesbian, in fact) who was the victim of an unfortunate mix-up and given the wrong sort of body when my soul was incarnated. This has been observed to explain a lot. It's also been observed--by me--to be an absurd spiritual conspiracy theory that I could probably fictionalise and make a lot of money off of at the cost of hating myself for the rest of my life. XD

[the_sun_is_up]

Yes, male lesbian! That is exactly it! XD

And take comfort in the knowledge that the idiots who mock you for being "effeminate" are probably just really insecure.

[melengro]

A conversation with a friend of mine who's an actual female lesbian:

Me: ...so, me being straight and all, I...'
Her: You're not straight.
Me: ...beg pardon?
Her: You're not straight. You're an honestly somewhat shrill femme in a man's body.
Me: (pause) Oh. Okay!

Insecure, douchey, and/or self-obsessed to a ridiculous degree, yeah.

[the_neon_one]

*head desk*

I wish I could say that anything on this list surprised me, but I think I may have lost my shock at the stupidity of gender binaries. I can even think of commercials that propagate these specific ideas.

God, I hate the media sometimes.

[woodburner]

Okay the rest of the points are the usual types I've heard before, but LISTENING TO FEMALE MUSICAL ARTISTS? WHAT THE FUCK? (I mean, objectively speaking the rest are pretty wtf too, but they're at least the normal brand of stupidity that saturates our culture.)

(...Also, I'm pretty sure reading Ministering Angels only counts because men aren't supposed to read books with "angel" in the title. Nor "unicorn." God help you if you want to read a book about a unicorn.)