Best Posts in Thread: Black Gay Queer Feminists Want to Eliminate Masculinity

I think the major problem with his thinking is that for him his authentic self was queer and wanted to be a drag wearing, diva worshiping, smedium wearing out and flowing rainbow pride gay and that's cool but he now thinks and believes that that's the only gay that's real. It's not!

I personally think the overidealized thought of over sharing every deep and personal thought and everybody being open to feeling and sharing those deep feelings is what's really toxic in society.

You can be traditionally masculine and have deep sensitive feelings on the inside and that doesn't negate the masculinity in and of itself or make one more authentic over the other, it's just not necessary to wear them tighter than that smedium sweater.

 

Yep...FemBots

 

Excellent piece. To invalidate masculinity would be to invalidate femininity. One is not inherently default over the other; you can't describe one without the other. As you said, the real discussion should be about dispelling hyper-masculinity as well as the other extreme.

 

Why is it so hard for people to understand that gay people are varied? We have enough problems trying to get straight people to see this, let alone gays. All these different subcultures but we are supposed to be the same boa wearing, tighty whitey and tennis shoes wearing, excellent dancing, and ever so stylish blobs of meat.

These vocal "queers" just want everyone to be gay robots modeled after them.

 

I'm basing my comments on the video. I get his points about performative masculinity, and he has some good ones. But he's basing them all on his personal experience and projecting that on an entire sex. By his logic, should we completely dismantle femininity too (I'm sure there's a layered conversation with valid points there as well)? I think a more intelligent way of addressing the issue would be to consider that there are folks that just don't fit into the binary of masculine/ feminine and lobby to make space for (versus ostracize) them in society. There are societies that have been doing this for quite a long time with varied results (Native American two-spirit people and Samoan fa'afafine). But it goes without saying that any place where machismo is dominant has less space (read: tolerant) for variations on gender expression. The last two and a half minutes of Wade's video best supports the point he was trying to make, in my opinion. Using examples such as Westbrook, Beckham, and the Smith kids as black folks pushing the boundaries of heteronormativity was smart. It shines a light on the possibilities of what's acceptable/ expected from folks that have a huge platform with perceivably a lot to lose by coloring outside of the lines. But to deduce that everyone who is "performing" masculinity is "wearing a mask" is just bad logic. To this day, I don't like the Bodyguard soundtrack.

 

continued. When you reach a certain age you see all these movements as just trends shifting back and forth. Masculinity as an identity has as much chance as being eliminated as America being a Christian state, or white people losing political power even if they quantitatively become a minority. Queens may get the most media attention because....well they are queens, but the queen's bitchiness may just be a compensation for being overlooked as a sexual partner, because Masculinity Rules in ones sexual choice.

 

In the 1970's there was an overemphasis on performing masculinity; to use the term coined by Foucault. It was a parody of masculinity where the Marlboro man was the role model of white gay men. I lived in San Francisco in the 70's and I am not sure if the trend replicated itself in NYC. It was a way of proclaiming that we can be both gay and also perform the masculine role. What bothered me was how deliberate it was, almost like another type of costume or "male drag." I tend to find straight masculinity attractive because it is performed so effortlessly. It does not draw attention to itself.

 

"Wa'minute b!!!tch. Whatchu MEEEEAN his statements is disgusting??!! Masculinity IS a mask huney! We ALL started out as women huney, IT's science b!!!tch. Ya'll tops is jus' some closet bottoms byyytch. Ya'll jus' need ta take off them masculine masks and get wit the BeyHive, Hunty! Yassss!!!"



Sorry for not takin' this article as serious as you probably intended it to be taken @Ockydub . LOL