10 Simple Rules for Successful Gay Living
Check THIS out. This "blog" was passed on to me recently. When I started reading it I felt that the only humane thing to do would be to find his address and smother him in the middle of the night with his own bedding, just to put him out of his misery, and in some small way reclaim leverage in the battle for gay identity. However, this isn't a reasonable standard of behavior, as helping Darwin along by way of mercy killings would wipe out a sizeable percentage of the gay men in DC, thus I reconsidered in favor of a more noble ideology.
As I kept reading, my mood turned from spiteful to entertained, segued to empathic, and finally rested on sadness. By the time I was half way through I was certain that I was being had. Was this satire? A cautionary tale? I admit that I was tricked by the voice and cadence of the author, But by the end of the 10 rules I knew that I was reading the work of a talented writer. I'm impressed.
Does anyone believe that this really happened? I've emailed this anonymous person. Hopefully he responds. Reveal yourself, scribe!
3 comments:
given the blog's marilynized photo from his youth; as well as the meter, tone and use of upper case letters to refer to proper nouns, i think it's a parody on contemporary culture and a nod to the stylings of andy warhol's journals, which preceded and predicted blog culture...but i could be wrong 'cause i only read halfway (like 600 pages) before i decided that i "got it."
Regardless of its truth or fiction, this "blog" definitely paints what I perceive as a very accurate picture of what life is like for a lot of young gay men living "out and free" in urban America. A life to which The New Gay was established to provide an alternative.
It really captures the bull-shit mindset that I feel so many guys have: that they need to give up their self identity in exchange for a sense of acceptance in the Gay World. And unfortunately, that Gay World is filled with vapid commercialism, body fascism, intellectual emptiness, and a lot of substances taken to ease the pain and fill the void.
And somehow, the idea that you can make yourself feel better by shitting all over other people got incorporated into it, too. We're reenacting all those playground or lunch-room bully-scenarios all over again, but this time playing the oppressor. Why?
WAKE UP, BOYS! There is an alternative. It's called "being yourself." And what's so amazing is that you break out of that restrictive mold the Gay World tries to force you into (into which any one rarely fits) you will find that you are indeed not alone.
Try reading Fahrenheit 451 or watching The Matrix a few times if you don't know what I'm talking about.
(Of course, if you're reading this site, you probably have already started second-guessing the sort of life portrayed in this "blog." Congrats.)
uh, there's a mirror in one bathroom in my house that i look at myself in when i want to make myself feel good about my appearance. i only like my chest and abs when one light is on but not when the big overhead light is on. it happens . . .
Post a Comment