this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2024
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Isn't being proud of your sexuality mostly a response to being shamed by bigots for your sexuality? Like: parts of society look down on my sexuality? Well fuck you, I'm proud of it! If you're not being shamed at all, isn't a bit weird to be proud of such things? As if you did anything to become a heterosexual. No one cares, nor should they.
Yeah, that is the whole point. The whole point is not "I am proud of who I am attracted to", the point is "I am proud of being open about who I am attracted to despite the bigots and social challenges".
Which is why there is no "straight pride", "blond pride", or "high school student pride". There is no glory in doing something that is statistically speaking, completely devoid of interest...
Yeah, but the more we demonize normal people, the more interesting they become.
Wait, I thought this was about being proud of standing up to bigots?
Is it about being a statistical anomaly and special, or about being a progressive activist?
Cuz I'll tell you what pride month is to me, as a straight man. Pride month is one of many placative gestures performed by corporations in order to manipulate my empathy into buying their products. It's a nice set of makeup that corporations get to wear while you go out and suffer the consequences. You, as someone who is a part of the LGBTQ+ community, should be painfully aware of the damaging effects that corporate usage of the pride month aesthetic has had on public perception of the people in that group.
Yet, here you are. Concerned about establishing why you're more fucking special than straight people.
No no, pride is not about being "special". Nobody is special. It's about people embracing who they are, despite having a tougher going than others.
It's about not staying in the closet in a country with bigots. It's about being a woman in a working culture that favours men. It's about going to university in a country that favours manual labour. It's about being trans... and daring to say out loud "this is not my gender".
Being a white, straight, cis man is not very difficult. Being a non-white, straight, cis woman is statistically more common, but harder. Normally, "statistical anomalies" have a harder going, but this is definitely not about being special. It's about being whoever you are, despite the adversity.
Also, to clarify - I haven't mentioned anything about not being straight. My sexual orientation has nothing to do with my response.
Everything you've said I appreciate, I fully recognize that the LGTBQ+ community should be proud of itself for the reasons you've listed.
I also maintain that pride month has been perverted into something else by corporate interests. Mark my words, the longer the LGBTQ+ community adheres itself to corporations; the worse the inevitable damage will be. I have nothing else to add.
Corporations leech off cultures and communities, sure. but that doesnt have to devalue them. Its a separate issue entirely.
I disagree, when corporations have infinitely more reach and influence you have no hope of controlling any narrative they're a part of.
They own pride month. The LGBTQ+ community does not.
Fundementally as long as pride month's story is linked to stonewall and that story is always told, pride month will always have a bigger symbolism with the counterculture than any corporate influence.
There's a reason American labor day explicitly does not happen in May.
Corporate influence isn't counterculture. In fact it's pride month that is actually counterculture.
I find it amusing that you're using labor day as an example of the "control" you or anyone has over corporate narratives.
Your money has less purchasing power than it ever has, but we really showed them on Labor Day huh? That day that's so important we shift the date to whenever we feel like.
I think you've completely missed my point. The American labor day was chosen to have a no symbolic date specifically because of the power that the 8 hour work week protests and the haymarket affair in the month of may. It's the definition of a co-opted holiday. It's essentially the Tienanmen Incident for America.
And my point is that it's a paltry concession and ultimately meaningless, as evidenced by the current state of affairs for the average person (in the U.S.).
I fully understood when I wrote that comment that there wasn't a specific "Labor Day", my question was rhetorical.
... Perhaps if I spell it out you'll get it. Pride is important because of the stonewall riots and the sociological symbolism that accompanies those riots which encourages sometimes violent resistance to those that impede on your rights. Similarly international labor day (may day) was rejected by the US as a holiday because it involved riots that resulted in positive change(the 8 hour work day). I was contrasting them. I was not using US labor day as a reason why pride is important. I was explaining that the avoidance of that symbolism by those in power is what explicitly makes pride important.
You don't seem to understand what I'm saying, despite your inability to remain respectful.
Pride month isn't voluntary for many people that experience it. They are just subjected to it by corporations. Do you know how simple it is for an idiot to make a false correlation between increased pushes for inclusivity and a decline in quality of whatever good or service they're receiving? Because people blamed Biden for the inflation at the beginning of his term.
Spare me the third lecture, if what I'm saying isn't making sense then I'm writing you off as a corporate shill.
You must encounter a lot of corporate shills then. The idea that pride is an vehicle to blame the gays for externalities is absolutely ridiculous.
Yup. This is essentially the same as people suddenly screaming about "WHITE PRIDE!!!!" in response to things like Black Live Matter.
The entire point is a minority not letting the majority shame or otherize them. The the majority freaks out and responses with "ME TO BUT BETTER THAN YOU DID IT!".
It's pathetic.
I agree with your statement, but I would like to point out that "as if you did anything to become a heterosexual" is... yikes. That implies the LGBTQ+ community is not born how they are and have to do work to become lesbian, gay, bi, etc.
Diction is important; while that doesn't ruin the overall argument for me because I am an ally, I don't think that's something to say going forward because it's very easy to latch onto and discredit the argument as a whole.
I actually meant that as: as if you did anything to become a heterosexual/homosexual/any-kind-of-sexuality.
So your saying I can be proud to be white then?
You can be proud about anything.
Most people are proud to be useful idiots, for example.
Ahh that's me then!