Not Anonymous

Another well known white man whose sexuality has been a source of speculation and assumption for years finally confirmed the "rumours".

I am impressed, because the decision to be unambiguous is not an easy one, especially when the ethics involved may not be exactly what we assume them to be.

When I saw the news that Anderson Cooper had decided to brush off any remaining ambiguity regarding his sexuality, I mentioned it the office. My place of work likes to be up to date and we are a very gay friendly company, in fact the team I work with has the same amount of women as well as men, and three out of the team of eight are queer.

I mentioned it and one of my co-workers said, "about time". This co-worker happens to be straight.

Of course, then, a whole discussion about being when gay people are ready to tell other people, and celebrities who might be "uncomfortable" with their sexuality and a whole slew of other rather trite notions regarding when and why gay celebrities chose to come out.

I'd like to stay on the notion of "about time". This phrasing implies, quite explicitly, that Anderson Cooper should have been out and loud a long time ago. I hadn't really thought about that, despite the fact that if you worked in media, or followed the media, or followed the speculation regarding gay celebrities for whatever reason (me, I like knowing who my people are), you knew who is gay and who isn't, up to a point.

Anderson Cooper decided to be explicit about his sexuality because, as he wrote in his email to Andrew Sullivan:

[...]I’ve begun to consider whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh personal and professional principle. It’s become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something - something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true.[...]

Emphasis mine.

Related, when Quinto came out (and I wrote about it on DW and LJ), he made it a moral issue. Which, personally, is my stance on it as well. I make it my business to make sure the people I interact with know who they are talking to. The assumption that I am straight, simply because it doesn't occur to other people that there not everyone is straight (also known as heterosexism), is one that I am confronted in practically every facet of my life.

When Cooper says the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something, he is talking about a requirement mandated by straight society.

To be out is an ethical stand point. But it isn't something LGBT people actually owe straight society to do.

Emily Emanuel of Tiger Beatdown writes about exactly this in a post titled: People in Glass Closets: Anderson Cooper and Straight Responses to Coming Out.

Emanuel discusses the little micro-aggressions well meaning liberals choose to condescend onto queer people when it comes to public people coming out of the closet.

You should read her whole post, but the one thing that resonated with me in this post and every time another celebrity "Casually Come Out" (I don't totally agree with everything that's written here, but that's a post for another day) is this:

[..]when heterosexuals ask, “why does Anderson Cooper have to come out as gay,” I reply: “because you do not have to come out as heterosexual.”

Heterosexuals do announce their sexuality in public, all the time, of course. Walking down the street holding hands, kissing their lover, wearing wedding rings, clothing and other aesthetic codes. But it is not a movement from unacknowledged to public, it has no risk or social consequences in itself. In his coming out letter, Cooper notes that he didn’t come out because a reporter’s private life shouldn’t matter. Indeed. But part of the point is, being heterosexual isn’t private – it’s public.

When I was younger I lived on the ambiguity, it made me feel safe, I had the privilege of it and I didn't consider it something I needed to do in order to have integrity.

My tune changed as I was burned and my rage coalesced.

Regardless I am no longer ambiguous and that's a choice I made. The fact that I have to make that choice, that it is a staple in the life of LGBT people at all, tells us the demand that is placed on us by straight society and the assumptions that are forced onto us.

The other side of the coin is the demand from LGBT people for ambiguous or speculated celebrities to be upfront about who they are in the name of an agenda to promote LGBT visibility, rights and companies who want to shown as inclusive. A legitimate desire, I am dying for more LGBT representation in the mainstream media.

Still, the demand comes from a place to maintain a binary of making sure and deciding who is In and who is Out. Inside and outside what, I couldn't say.

I think it is a big deal that these celebrities are choosing to be unambiguous. I think we should also start unpacking why it is white men who have successful careers within the mainstream media that are getting the attention. Jodi Foster and Wanda Sykes notwithstanding, why so few celebrity women are coming out in the same manner and why the whole phenomena is so overwhelmingly white.

#2 Entry of the Queer Bundle.

So. James Caan. Mister Rollerball, Mister Corelone, Mister Elder Doppelgänger.

Onward to the ( Spoilers )

There are people you wish you knew long before you met them.

This is especially true of artists, authors, actors (of any gender) and other creative people, who you discover when they're already popular and you work backwards in time to realise that, fuck, they were amazing before you knew them.

That's how I feel about Scott Caan. Really. It's been a thing for months now, I'm not ashamed of this love that I have - I have spent good money on this man and it has been totally worth it.

Reading this article, Stay Gold, about Scott and how he has come to be who he is (which isn't all in there, but hey, not all of it is as pretty as the article makes it out to be) makes me wish I knew him when he was just starting out and seeing him evolve and develop.

Working my way backwards into his work has been super fun and really educational. Because at first I just knew him as James Caan's better looking doppelgänger son.

Now, well, yeah, he's golden.



( Hell yeah there's more! )
Crossposts: http://eumelia.livejournal.com/564155.html

As many of you know I haven't been around much because I have been busy finishing off my degree, working three part times jobs and going to demonstrations to make sure my country doesn't implode on itself.

I did, however, manage to distract myself thoroughly by becoming addicted to a show that should have been the biggest turn off ever.

Because #1 it's a cop buddy show, #2 it's a remake of a classic (so yeah, there was a gender switch of one the mains).

I honestly did not expect to fall so in love with Hawaii Five-0. But even more so, I never expected to fall for head over heels fannishly in love with one Scott Caan. I've known the man for years as a side-actor, more as a "Hey, it's that guy" and as the progeny of one James Caan - who is staple in my House of Cinephiles!

So, once I was lured via picspams (something which never appealed to the feminist in me, because you know, I, er, totally oppose objectification of any kind. Yeah, watch me eat my words) of Scott, I checked out the show and subsequently, Scott himself.

And here I am, posting a picspam of my own. Most likely if you follow Hawaii Five-0 fandom you have seen them all, but these are my favourites for various reasons.

We'll start off with my #1 favourite:


( Way More Under The Cut )

I hope you all enjoyed that. I know I did.

Even if you're not a fan of Hawaii Five-0 and never intend to watch the show, I urge you to check this man out. I'll probably post a review of some of the better movies he's been in; I watched his bad stuff so that you don't have too!

I don't think there's a person in my little circle who isn't aware that Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy will be Catwoman and Bane (respectively... though it would be a hilarous gender bend!) in the third Nolanverse Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises.

When the story broke a few days ago this was my reactions:
OMG! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE YAY!!!!!!! Clever Catwoman Backflips Hurray! Scary Psychotic Gonna look HUGE BANE HUZZAH!

Yeah, that was my first.

My second, was this:
"Huh? Wait a mo'! Isn't Bane Latino?" which I admit is based on the racially charged Mexican wrestling mask he wears. And I admit on the Hebrew sites I mentioned this, but you know, I was waiting for the Anglo-Speaking world's reaction and Racialicious never disappoints!

In the short post titled: Race + Comics: Is Bane Getting Racebent? and there's a picture of Tom Hardy as Bronson (his most physical role to date as far as I'm aware... Warrior hasn't come out yet, right?) and a picture of Bane pumped with Venom and wearing his trade mark mask.

There's a short discussion of Bane's heritage as shown in the comics, and I was partially correct in my assumption of Latin heritage as Bane comes from the made up Caribbean Republic of
Santa Prisca and has a fictional history of Spanish Colonialism.
While Bane's father is a British National and his mother is a Santa Prisca National, so at the very least he's biracial, but you know what... I don't that's the point.
So many black Latin@ actors play African-Americans, hell! Black Brits play African-Americans!

Yes, the dynamic is different, obviously it is. If Bane was established as a non-white character, rather than a character with a post-colonial ethnicity, I'd be up in arms against the white-washing of Bane.

But Bane has always been white in the comics (at least the ones I've read, please correct me if I'm wrong) and the fact that he's not a white Anglo doesn't mean that his portrayal in a live action movie by a white Anglo is white-washing.

Bane has a heritage of Spanish Colonialism. He speaks Spanish. Tom Hardy is really good with accents, like, amazing! I don't think, really, that there's an intention of erasing any kind of ethnic heritage. But then, these things are rarely intentional and I don't think Nolan intended making Rachel (that girl who died and both Bruce and Harvey wanted) into a Refrigerated Woman (despite her being blown up).

Though if Nolan changes Bane's history (because dude, he grew up in prison!) I'll be annoyed! However, Nolan portrays the world very realistically and he may change some things in order for everything to fit in with his vision of "Batman".

And that's what I have to say about that.

I'm having second thoughts about admiring Amanda Palmer these days.

Ironic. You keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means.

You know, I like Lady Gaga and AFP for many of the same reasons.
Both have a lot to say about a woman's condition in the spotlight.
Both are open about their bisexuality, which for this queer, is awesome.
Bot perform in over the top costumes, make-up and live!

Their styles are different, Gaga is unashamedly pop-and-plastique, AFP is wonderfully indie-and-dark.

Gaga is all about glitz and glitter.

AFP is all about powder and pastiche.

Gaga has done crip-drag and AFP has done crip-drag.

I've yet to hear Gaga utter a disparaging word againt a fellow artist and performer like AFP has done.

I'm really disappointed in AFP.

I don't know what I'm going to do now.

You discover that Howard Zinn passed away.

Well.

I suppose it's time to read his book, right?

Edited to add 29.01.09: Dude, J.D. Salinger died as well.

Is this supposed to be the year of Authors Dying? I'll keep my eyes open.

see more Lol Celebs

Yes, I LOL'd.

I sighed like an indulgent aunt.
I don't consider myself having that kind of relationship with a celeb.
But he's as adorable as my 4 year old niece!

Dude.

That man, may he Rest In Peace.

I bet he'd have loved how the entire social studies, humanities and cultural studies world is going to go on and on about him over the next week.

I'm glad I've got my Anthro class tomorrow. And to think I was just trying to explain how he managed to structure humanity into Universals.

Death, now that's a universal.

Not only does he pwn his opponent - whose arguments do not even touch on the reality of what Zizek spoke about, rather the fact that in Israel there is diversity. Huh?
Zizek speaks clearly and succinctly, about the facts that go on in real life, and manages to empty out the empty moralistic justifications of "Good", "Evil" and "Just Because".

This video is awesome and should be spread as far and wide as possible.