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08/30/2007
The New York Post's Lame Attempt at Survey Humor
New York magazine's Intelligencer takes a look at a survey accompanying the New York Post's Larry Craig coverage today:
Intelligencer notes: "If blacks or Jews, for example, were painted in such broad strokes, there'd be widespread uproar."
The only real shock, however, is that there isn't a Sean Delonas cartoon to go along with it.
For all our Larry Craig coverage, click here.
Posted 10:30 AM EST by Andy Towle in Larry Craig, New York, News, Republican Party | Permalink
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Not offended at all. It's just not that funny.
Posted by: Allen | Aug 30, 2007 10:32:09 AM
lame indeed.
the legs this story has grown are getting out of hand.
Posted by: A.J | Aug 30, 2007 10:37:35 AM
Any paper that pays Amanda Peyser for her opinion should be used to clean windows and maybe line your birdcage, if you hate your bird that is.
Posted by: Davey | Aug 30, 2007 10:49:30 AM
Oh come on guys--if this were in any outlet other than The Post we'd all be laughing.
Posted by: Charles | Aug 30, 2007 11:07:20 AM
Yes, if other groups were painted like that, there would be uproar. And I would understand why. But.... the fact is that I'm not offended by this. Maybe it's because I don't relate to the pain and ridicule felt by those who don't match their seersucker suits, but I think it's really because they're just not making fun of gay people; they're making fun of hypocritical gay Senators. So maybe the title of it should be "Are You a Closeted Hypocritical Gay Senator," but ... it does say that in the line directly below.
Posted by: GC | Aug 30, 2007 11:07:43 AM
And it's printed in pink. Give me a fucking break.
Posted by: Gregg | Aug 30, 2007 11:09:43 AM
Oh my god - you idiots who are not offended by this need to wake up. They are indeed "making fun of gay people". And by NOT being offended by this, YOU are allowing them to marginalize all of us as showtune singing effete fashion obsessed queens. (Not that there is anything wrong with showtune singing effete fashion obsessed queens. I love em. But most gay men are NOT that, and that stereotype is used to disempower us and paint us as ineffectual weaklings.)
Posted by: Gregg | Aug 30, 2007 11:14:11 AM
Um ... Gregg ... I'm not a closeted married man trying to get some cock in a public restroom, so I find this piece pretty dull and not funny.
Posted by: Allen | Aug 30, 2007 11:25:14 AM
Number 4 is funny I think. The rest, meh...
Posted by: anon (gmail.com) | Aug 30, 2007 11:27:42 AM
I suppose it's offensive, but I don't know if it INTENDS to be offensive or if it's so poorly written by someone with obvious lack of irony, humor or talent. It's just poorly done, like a 12 yr old boy wrote it. Nickname is "Mother"? Barbershop Quartets? Exclaiming that someone is "a very naughty boy"? Did New York mag dig this up from 1952? What type of homosexual are they exactly talking about here - Quentin Crisp? Oscar WIlde? It's more baffling than anyhting else. Just extremely arcane.
Posted by: Joe Marrazzo | Aug 30, 2007 11:32:02 AM
If the questions weren't pointed at gay men and were instead related to more political situations of hypocrisy then I'd be amused. Instead, I'm insulted.
Don't go around insinuating that this is the behavior of gay men, senators or otherwise.
Posted by: Rob (lrdarystar) | Aug 30, 2007 11:34:19 AM
Allen - YOU may see a distinction between yourself and "a closeted married man trying to get some cock in a public restroom", but the general straight readers of this article will not. The "humor" of the piece is the stereotyping of ALL gay men. Showtunes, snappy dressing, and motherly behavior, all neatly linked to gay bathroom sex. Open your eyes.
Posted by: Gregg | Aug 30, 2007 11:36:05 AM
I completely agree...the biggest offense is the fact that its just not that funny. And they have SOOO much material they could have gone to. Show tunes? Bow ties? C'mon, you can do better than that.
But i can look at this and at least see they were trying to be funny. It would be nice if other 'groups' could be so playfully ribbed once in a while w/o going into convulsions.
Posted by: Nikk | Aug 30, 2007 11:50:22 AM
#2 is funny.
Posted by: hill_w | Aug 30, 2007 12:00:51 PM
As Larry Kramer bluntly and correctly points out, the dominant culture "hates us" and will continue to hate us, even while begrudgingly offering us the barest minimum of human rights. We should not be deceived into thinking we are accepted. This is a big joke to the culture at large. It is not so much about the Craig's hypocrisy as it is about the "shame" of homosexuality. Same old, same old.
Posted by: lwoolf | Aug 30, 2007 12:21:06 PM
LWOOLF - thank you for summing up so succinctly what I was stridently trying to say.
It just bugs me to no end when gay people give this kind of thing a "pass" because it's so pervasive. Yes, there has been much worse than this. That doesn't make it right nor OK. Yes, we all need to have a sense of humor about ourselves. And believe me, I love the kind of humor that rips apart PC propaganda, like South Park and Sarah Silverman. But the attempt at humor here is so facile that it is infuriating.
The author and the magazine saw nothing wrong with stereotyping and marginalizing us, and does it with a wink and tongue in cheek. This is the kind of subtle homophobia that we need to say "No" to, not only the blatant Naugle/Romney/etc homophobia.
Sure we have much bigger fish to fry than this, and it clearly does not demand some kind of uproar when compared to the other hatred we face. But there is NO reason to dismiss it and say it is not offensive.
What upsets me here is not so much the article itself, but the easy dismissal of it.
Posted by: Gregg | Aug 30, 2007 1:17:47 PM
(that should read "do it with a wink" not "does". Oops.)
Posted by: Gregg | Aug 30, 2007 1:20:23 PM
C'mon guys, all you have to do to know that this stuff is offensive is to substitute the words "jew" or "n*gger" in place of "gay" and you'll easily see how offensive this stuff really is...
Posted by: Robert In WeHo | Aug 30, 2007 2:21:49 PM
This is not a list of random stereotypical gay traits. This is a list, specifically, of Larry Craig's behavior. And it sounds pretty damn gay to me! As does he!
Posted by: Chris | Aug 30, 2007 3:03:33 PM
And it's from New York Magazine, not the New York Post. For whatever that's worth.
Posted by: Chris | Aug 30, 2007 3:04:51 PM
And it's from New York Magazine, not the New York Post. For whatever that's worth.
Posted by: Chris | Aug 30, 2007 3:06:50 PM
Oops. Ignore that last comment. Or two.
Posted by: Chris | Aug 30, 2007 3:12:37 PM
Oops. Ignore that last comment. Or two.
Posted by: Chris | Aug 30, 2007 3:13:01 PM
Why do the more vicious and bitter of the gay community think stories like this Craig thing deserve to be screamed from the high heavens? It does deserve reporting, yes, but in the long run it doesn't change anyone's attitudes about gays or the way people vote or anything. Sometimes it even backfires. The public is thinking of gays as a bunch of toilet freaks now. Matt Sanchez? He's still working for and accepted by his conservative gang. Tyler Whitney? Gays made themselves look bad by wishing AIDS on a 17-year-old. Meanwhile 21-year-old Matt Hill Comer of Interstate Q, who doesn't feel this inner need to attack and tattle, spends his time making genuinely positive changes, actually travelling across country, really affecting change at diehard Christian colleges in their policies. He's a good gay kid who makes a difference. And he's totally ignored on this site.
Posted by: Joe T. | Aug 30, 2007 3:29:14 PM
Ugh. I'm pretty tired of this stuff. Yeah, getting stereotypes shoved in my face all the time, especially when none of them even remotely describe me, is getting REALLY old.
It doesn't matter if it was meant to be offensive or not. You can't just say "it was meant to be funny, so it's fine!!!" Well, it's not funny to me, a gay man who is the brunt of the joke. I know they're aiming to make fun of the GOP sex scandals, but they could easily do it without resorting to tired gay stereotypes that basically covey the message "gay men are not real men, and so it's an insult to say someone is gay".
Posted by: Donovan | Aug 30, 2007 4:17:10 PM