Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Followers
Blog Archive
-
▼
2010
(17)
-
▼
March
(8)
- Queering Crip Cripping Queer
- Blog posting for Ch 6 & 7 of Booth-- due Sunday, 3...
- Choreographies of Protest and Manifestos
- For over the weekend: Booth pages 31-83
- Booth's the Craft of Research, pages 3-27
- "Queering the State" for Tuesday, March 16th
- Chapter 9: LGBT and Literature
- Ch. 13: Film and Television
-
▼
March
(8)
I think what Duggan is trying to say is that the LGBTQ community has won the battle as far as academia is concerned, but there is still a long way to go regarding the public and political sphere. I think mainly what she is describing (as I understand it) is a fundamental change in the way we talk about LGBTQ issues in the public/political sphere. Instead of trying to constantly defend ourselves and gain what some may see as “special” rights we should focus on leveling the playing field. I think her the goal she’s presenting is to try and connect to the sense of fairness that the average person has (or should have anyway). The voting public isn’t made exclusively of queer people nor is composed solely by those on the Christian right. This being the case, if we hope to gain and maintain the same rights and liberties as others we must make ourselves heard and understood by those at the poles and everyone in between. I think this approach can work. I think the reason many people aren’t necessarily pro-LGBTQ is a lack of understanding that stems from a disconnect between gays (especially those with the most visibility) and the rest of society. This disconnect is best exemplified by Anita Bryant’s ludicrous “Save the Children” campaign. It’s amazing that she not only was able to construe LGBTQ rights issues into a war against perversion, but also that she was successful. This for me speaks to what Duggan is saying the best paraphrase of which is people have many worries chief among them are their own families and rights and freedoms they enjoy. To that end no one will sympathize with a minority group who appears to be infringing upon these rights. So I agree very much with Duggan that the discussion must not be about special rights, but equal treatment and it must be presented on a level that anyone can understand.
ReplyDeleteDuggan suggests educating the brainwashed public on queer points of view is the most effective method to be utilized by the LGBT community in order to obtain equality under law. In one part of her writing, she made reference to the organization “Focus on the Family” in Colorado Springs and how this group makes use of their $90 million budget to produce anti-gay paraphernalia, such as the video “The Gay Agenda”. I lived in the Springs for 2 years and have seen the Focus on the Family headquarters, even had a few friends with parents that worked as counselors, and it is definitely a big deal to people there. The complex is enormous, complete with the massive headquarters building known for its humongous slide which can be seen from the interstate. Therefore, I can see how it would be easy for the organization to voice its opinions to many individuals and gain influence over large portions of the community. Unfortunately, the LGBT community does not have such abundant funds as groups like Focus on the Family, and cannot mass produce as much propaganda to draw in support from target audiences, i.e. religious groups and sympathetic party voters, which is why Duggan suggests the gays and lesbians take another approach to the issue in trying to educate people as much as they can about their point of view and what it means to be gay/lesbian in America. I think this plan has the potential to be successful; however, it will require lots of time and persistence. The idea of teaching about homosexuality in public schools will be a difficult hurdle to pass due to the fact that organizations such as Citizens for Excellence in Education make it a prime goal to get “an active Christian parent’s committee in operation in all [15,700] districts” in order to “take complete control”. [Duggan, 1] In addition, the LGBT community and supporters will have to work against the opposing push of the right-wing conservatives to maintain a system of “political correctness”, essentially a system of maintaining division within the community. It will be a difficult and drawn-out process, but I think if the LGBT community holds out and doesn’t let up in the fight for equality and what’s right, things will work out in their favor.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Andrew about Duggan advocating for equal treatment and a sense of fairness that all people should posses. Throughout her argument, Duggan suggest that tactics that promote equality among people in general, that take the focus off of extra rights and synonyms, would be more productive. Duggan states, “We know who really has the special rights. In fact, the state is deeply involved in regulating and “promoting” heterosexuality.” I agree with this. Politicians, teachers, and other highly influential figures promote, whether consciously or subconsciously (though usually consciously), the idea that heterosexuality is the only right and natural lifestyle choice. Individuals cannot be asked to not believe whatever it is they personally believe, but they can be expected to not promote hate or discrimination against a person. Privatizing sexuality is unrealistic; this is asking people to act in a uniform manner and to be untrue to their person while ignoring their rights. However, it can be demanded that every United States citizen receives the exact same rights. Duggan suggests countering heterosexual ads with homosexual versions, thus illuminating the fact that heterosexuals are the ones being granted special rights. In my opinion, voters who do not take a pro-gay stance are taking an anti-gay stance by default; it is assumed that people who do not openly support homosexuals oppose them because there is little middle ground made available. By using Duggan’s ideas of “leveling the playing field,” those citizens who are not really engaged in the political arena could be targeted with a vote for equality instead of a vote for homosexuals. Fanatics are never going to change their minds or broaden their perspective, but the majority of followers have the potential to be won over. It is continuously frustrating for LGBT members to have to be the bigger person and constantly take criticism and hurt, but this patience will eventually win out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Andrew, I think Duggan was saying that we need to "level the playing field." In the Declaration of Independence, the statement on human rights say, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and we are endowed by our Creator certain unalienable rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." When they say "men," I think that includes and human being. It doesn't matter if you are black, white, gay, straight, or transgendered. You should have the same rights as everyone else. I think that if the LGBT community shows people who oppose them that they just want the same rights as everyone else, there would be success. If you refer to the rights as "special" rights, people just look at it like you are asking for so much. But if you just say you want the same rights as everyone else, people may be apt to be understanding. I'm sure this method has been used to discuss matters with politians who are voting. But if you portrayed this to Americans, they may be understanding that the LGBT community is the same as everyone else, but are denied human rights, I think they would be more opened-minded.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Andrew that Duggan is trying to state that the public and political side of the LGBT community still has a ways to go, as far as acceptance. She attempts to connect everyone’s rights, including LGBT members, by educating those that, as Taylor describes, are “brainwashed.” I too believe that certain tactics will encourage equality amongst all people. From personal experience, this LGBT issues course has opened my eyes to the LGBT community as a whole, and accepting, without always agreeing with people. Higher figures in society due have a way of promoting heterosexuality; you know, the fact that heterosexuality is the “norm” and the only correct way to live. Personal testimony, I always believed that the heterosexual lifestyle was right, and to an extent, I can still argue my opinion, but I agree with Brandy, I never hated or discriminated with people because of my opinions. However, to refrain others from this is by connecting people and their equality. The best way to do that is for homosexuals to speak up and out about homosexual rights. The LGBT community must be heard. Everyone should definitely have the same rights (& wrongs).
ReplyDeleteI believe Duggan is mainly trying to stress the importance of rhetoric in the arguments for and against gay rights. Obviously, the way we talk about LGBT issues effects how people view them. Many people (gays included) have a very bad habit of treating heterosexuality as the norm. Obviously, the Christian Right is at the head of this. Even if you just look at the name of one of its main organizations: Focus on the Family. So queers are incapable of caring or focusing on family? The mere title of the organization is incredibly insulting and offensive to me. Regardless, the rhetoric surrounding gay rights is surrounding us—from advertising to pop culture to politics.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Duggan on the majority of her points. I believe the way we talk about gay rights is very important to the movement, and affects quite a few people, whether they realize it or not.
I think that was Duggan is trying to say is that in order to become assimilated into society as equals, the queer community needs to teach the rest of the population about us in general. Which I think is a really smart idea personally because I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who have this twisted view of homosexuality. There are thousands of people who have a distorted idea of what homosexuality entails and its kind of disturbing if you think about it. I have a friend from work who is from Costa Rica and he had never met a homosexual before. We were talking in Spanish about it and he was asking me questions about whether I was attracted to women and he though it was odd that I was more attracted to men because he had just never met anyone who felt that way. But he didn’t seem put off by this, he just seemed curious. I think this kind of encounter could be considered a beneficial one because he was educated about something like this without all the false pretenses. I’ve had plenty of people friends and acquaintances come up to me inquiring about my queerness, and I’m happy to answer any questions they have because Duggan is right in her stance on the need for queer education. Knowing is half the battle. I thought it was crazy when she was talking about the kind of funding that the right Christians half, and the amount of press they get. Its almost unfathomable the amount of effort they are putting into such archaic ideas. I feel like we may not be able to surpass them when it comes to throwing money around, but if we can educate the community then they can teach others and it could spread like wildfire. I think that we just have to get the message heard.
ReplyDeleteDuggan’s main argument is that the educated population should be taking their place in assisting the LGBT political rights more. She talks about how those involved in queer studies are in the position for GLBT rights, however that they should be doing more to assist. One of the aspects of helping out that she talks about is attempting to educate the mass population because of the dissolution that they possess due to the campaigning abilities of right-wing Christians. She also says that perhaps one of the biggest obstacles that those involved in queer studies would have to overcome in order to help teach the mass populace is that of their rhetoric. She even gives some ideas of how the educated populace can change their rhetoric to reach the ears of the common people. I believe that this would be very effective in helping to get GLBT issues passed on ballots. If there was a throng of educated people, who knew what they were talking about, speaking about the misconceptions and the lies about the GLBT population that has been instilled in people’s head by right wing Christians they would perhaps be more willing to take the side of GLBT rights. This could, however, be harmful to the particular person in regards to their career. The right-wing Christians have a large amount of money in various places and if a professor at a particular university starts playing a major political role against them, the university, some students, as well some members of society may ostracize them. This could be one of the reasons why many of the educated populace has decided to use the type of language that they do in order to protect much of their prestige in their career place.
ReplyDeleteDuggan suggested that a better method to gain citizenship rights for those within the LGBT community would be to promote equality of all human, not just for the LGBT community instead of asking for “special rights”. I think it is a very good plan because asking for special rights can give a bigger and better reason for opposition, but that doesn’t mean that it will be completely effective. Equal rights can compose a change, but as we can see when it comes to race, some people are still treated better than others. I think the best method is “queer education”, as Duggan calls it, that is for people of the LGBT community to promote a better understanding of their way of life for others, not saying that it would be very effective for all, but people are more understanding after seeing things from other points of views. Neither one of these methods would be able to change the views of the church. Like Ayla, I think that everyone should have equal rights and wrongs. I think people of the LGBT community, like everyone else, should also have helpful laws against discrimination and hate crimes, basically because a crime is a crime and will always be a crime whether the person is black, white, gay, or straight.
ReplyDeleteI agree that in "Queering the State" Duggan is trying to find a better way to present the homosexual view to heterosexuals. I think that this is a good idea. Many heterosexuals have no clue about homosexual life and that we should find a way to relate to them and show them what the LGBT community stands for and what the LGBT ideas are. She is also suggesting that we give way to ALL human rights, not just the LGBT community. Everyone should be seen as equal in the world and no one should have to suffer due to discrimination. This is a good plan because it would allow everything to operate better. The government, schools, everything would be equal and people wouldn’t have to worry about getting their feelings heard. Educating people about queer issues is the first step. You aren’t able to change anything if people don’t know anything about it. Teaching people about the LGBT community makes it easier for them to listen to the issues and make a change in society. Queerness should definitely be taught more in schools and made accessible to everyone. Many people have so many different ideas about LGBT life and they either get the wrong information or are scared to ask. We should make the knowledge available to everyone so that people can start to understand how to make a difference in changing society’s norms.
ReplyDeleteShe also brings up a point about the way we talk about LGBT issues. We can’t sit there and preach or start riots to make a point. We have to present the facts in a manner that will get the issues noticed but also won’t turn people away from the problems. This is the hardest part because many people don’t pay attention to LGBT issues because it doesn’t involve them directly. We should find a new way to show people how helping out the LGBT community will impact how the rest of society functions.
Duggan is stating that the only way for homosexuals to be accepted in society in terms of people voting for LGBT rights is to change the way they are discussed. Heterosexual society still views queers as people who are different and not the average or normal. We have to make people see us as everyday people just like them. We also have to get people to stop thinking of LGBT issues as “special interest” issues. People need to think of these issues in terms of equality and making our country the best place to live for all our citizens. They need to feel like no one should be left behind or let fall through the cracks. I believe an important step to achieve this is one of Harvey Milk’s beliefs, that queers need to come out of the closet and tell everyone they know about their sexual identity. By doing this it makes people realize that we are here in their world, their workplaces, and everywhere in the world. I feel like too many people still think of queers as people they do not know or have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. I think her plan is a great one. It is extremely hard to beg for equality whenever you have not even gained widespread acceptance. We need to make more people care about queers and feel like we are make positive difference and are valued in society. I feel like this approach could be very effective or miserably backfire. Depending on how it is executed, how much attention is paid to detail, and also luck this approach could get members of the LGBT community the acceptance and understanding from heterosexual society. However you can never truly predict how “mainstream” society is going to react to anything, especially LBGT issues.
ReplyDelete