This other clip I found on YouTube (Despite what people may say about Kanye, he's still amazing!) clip about
Kanye West discussing a little about homosexuality. He talks about in a group photo with him and his friends. The media started talking about how they were all gay. Because they wore a lot of colors. It's fascinating how people assume that you're gay because you were bright colors. Well when you look at the fashion trend at, let's say KCI, you see people with bright colored jeans with matching shoes and shirt. But I haven't anyone being called gay. Well this video is pretty old, and sine Kanye become such a great artist the media came to realize that he is just putting out a trend.
Imagine that none of us knew Kanye or anyone in that picture. What do you think about the picture? Do you really think that they all look gay? Is it wrong for a male to wear bright colored clothing? Would that be considered gay if you do? If so, then why is it if a girl wears bright colors she isn't considered lesbian ?
Quote at the moment: "Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?" ~Ernest Gaines <--This can be another question for you bloggers !
To tell you the truth, none of them look gay. i personally don't see anything gay about men wearing bright colours. That's like saying men who have their ear pierced are gay. So far, i haven't heard any men being gay because they have their ear pierced. My opinion if men wear bright colours it will not look gay. Men have the same rights as women to wear bright colours. As for your question about girls, i would say girl's nature is to wear any colour. So if girls want to wear bright colours they won't be considered lesbian. People expect girls to wear bright colours, not boys! But that is WRONG!
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ReplyDeleteI want to comment on the point you made, "People expect girls to wear bright colours, not boys! But that is WRONG!" This whole notion of men not being able to wear bright colours because they might be considered gay is a creation of the media mixed with peoples fears and dislikes towards homosexuals. Consider it this way, the media potrays men as being strong, tough, fit, well built, independent etc. and women as being soft, weak, dependent on a man, sexually immature etc. Now in terms of men, if they deviate from that generalization, they are compared to women whos generalization is that they are soft, weak etc and the same goes for what colour of clothing they wear.
ReplyDeleteMuch of this also has to do with the fashion industry and their mixing of the male and female clothing. So since men have this sense of being stronger, faster and "better" than woman, which is being fueled by the media, they would want to steer away from anything that might compare them to woman and in this case homosexuals, since they are potrayed as men behaving like women. I just want to play devils advocate here and say, why should men wear bright colours? Men have always been tough and strong and have never needed to wear bright colours as proof of their masculinity.
"Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?" Again, it depends on where you are in the world. In India, and correct me if I am incorrect, two men holding hands and walking is seen as a sign of friendship, while in the West it is seen as homosexual and wrong. Different cultures have different customs and traditions which are enforced by their media.
But on a different note, men have always been potrayed as protectors, warriors and guardians of their homeland which is true in some sense, so thats why it might be considered as normal.
Just to add... in the animal kingdom, the males are usually brighter and more colourful in order to attract females.
ReplyDeleteSexual dimorphism, as Ms. Draper mentioned, is a primitive characteristic of all terrestrial life. It's the characteristics of the males and females of a specific species that differentiate them from one another. Most bird and insects show sexual dimorphism through their colour, such as peacocks. If male peacocks did not exhibit bright colours, it would be hard for the females to discern the males from other females. In humans however, the greatest sexual dimorphism characteristics circulate around our facial features. So males don't need to necessarily wear bright colours to differentiate ourselves from females.
ReplyDeleteOn the general topic, I believe a male wearing bright coloured clothing is associated with homosexuality because of the media's image of a homosexual man. The typical homosexual male seen in media has very feminine characteristics, and one feminine characteristic (that the media also illustrates) is that females wear bright colours. The association of homosexual males being feminine and the generalization that females wear bright colours is why homosexuality is associated with brightly coloured clothing.
As for why it's much easier comprehend men holding guns than each other's hands, I agree with what Granit said in the sense that men are viewed as the protectors, and also because of the staggering dominance of men in armies throughout history, even to this point.
It's true, when I've been to India, it's completely normal to hold a guys hand, to them it wasn't considered being homosexual. I would also like to concur with Granit's point about males being protectors. It's true, the army was only males back in history, but as time went along, now we have females. Though I doubt we have a large number of females. (Any way to find a fixed number?)
ReplyDeleteThe first link shows the statistics of women in the U.S. military (as of 2009)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.womensmemorial.org/Press/stats.html
The second link shows the statistics of women in the Canadian military
http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/land-terre/life-vie/army-armee/statistics-statistiques-eng.asp
I agree with Nisant's point about holding hands in India is totally fine but in here you are consider gay. I will expand on that and highlight some of the reasons why it is fine holding hand there but not here. It depends on the environment that you are in and what stimuli you have been introduced to. On TV in the western society, we see two men holding hands, then we think that there is something going on between them. The reason why we think this way is because that is what we are told by the media. In some parts of the world, the media doesn't show that holding hands between the men is wrong so that is why they don't know about being gay.
ReplyDeleteI remember in my old school, they had this assembly where they were talking about different cultures and what they celebrate. When the slide shows came about South Asia and their celebrations, there were two South Asians who were hugging (they were meeting)instead of shaking hands. The student who was sitting right front of me, he asked his friends " Are they gay, they are hugging?". When he asked that question, i knew that he doesn't know that in South Asia, it is totally fine if you hug someone. In fact, many people in some parts of the world don't even know what the words gay and lesbian mean. Most of the times,these people are too busy working in their farms or other small places where they don't get exposed to these issues of being homosexuals and media. Some parts of the world are very religious so they don't want to talk about homosexuality. If a citizen talks about it, they know that they will get in big trouble.
Overall, it depends on where you live and what you get exposed to. These factors along with media shapes your mind and your opinion on homosexuality.
Thinking that men wearing bright colours are automatically gay is stupid. The media would be forcing all men to wear such dark and boring colours to broadcast their heterosexuality. I think that it is considered more acceptable for women to be wearing brighter colours because the media shows that women should be more outgoing than men. In my opinion, too little colour in your life can lead to a very boring existance.
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