![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparkindarknessSo Brian Sewell has penned one of the vilest pieces of homophobia I've seen for a while. The only reason it isn't eye gouging is because it's in the Daily Mail (this link is not to the Mail because I don't want to give them hits but contains the text of his screed) and after the amount of homophobic bigotry that vile rag produces
Let us have a look at this vileness. The most basic complaint is there are just too many GBLT characters on Coronation street and Eastenders. Don't you know that GBLT people only make up the teeeniest fraction of the population?
Pfft, I think if demographically we were ACCURATELY represented in soaps then there'd need to be a damn site more of us. And large urban centres – especially London and Manchester – tend to have even more of us (because so much of rural England is full of, well, Daily Mail readers). In fact, to make up of historical erasure as well, you might want to move straight, cis people off the soaps entirely. There are an immense number of characters on these soaps – of course there need to be GBLT people and not just one token sitting in a corner whimpering “mea culpa” to the echoes of Sewell's own self-hatred. Having GBLT characters isn't because these cities are “Sodoms” (and we can have another slap around the head for that one) but because we actually EXIST. Much as Brian and the Daily Mail may hate that
And why is there so much of this gayness in these soaps according to Brian? Why, gay writers advancing the “gay agenda.” My gods, the GAY AGENDA! It raises it's head again! The evil maniacal scheme to, to... to? Oh yes, be treated like people. Curse that wretched agenda – you mean we're not shameful little dirty secrets to be shoved in closets and hidden in dark corners? How dare we?
Read More
Let us have a look at this vileness. The most basic complaint is there are just too many GBLT characters on Coronation street and Eastenders. Don't you know that GBLT people only make up the teeeniest fraction of the population?
Pfft, I think if demographically we were ACCURATELY represented in soaps then there'd need to be a damn site more of us. And large urban centres – especially London and Manchester – tend to have even more of us (because so much of rural England is full of, well, Daily Mail readers). In fact, to make up of historical erasure as well, you might want to move straight, cis people off the soaps entirely. There are an immense number of characters on these soaps – of course there need to be GBLT people and not just one token sitting in a corner whimpering “mea culpa” to the echoes of Sewell's own self-hatred. Having GBLT characters isn't because these cities are “Sodoms” (and we can have another slap around the head for that one) but because we actually EXIST. Much as Brian and the Daily Mail may hate that
And why is there so much of this gayness in these soaps according to Brian? Why, gay writers advancing the “gay agenda.” My gods, the GAY AGENDA! It raises it's head again! The evil maniacal scheme to, to... to? Oh yes, be treated like people. Curse that wretched agenda – you mean we're not shameful little dirty secrets to be shoved in closets and hidden in dark corners? How dare we?
Read More