Well, sir, in response to your lament, I give you this response:
... hypermasculinity and homophobia often go hand in hand. In fact, the very professions being idolised have long harboured some of the worst harassers of gay people and women. ... until Sept. 11, a lot of people may have never considered the enormous danger involved in these kinds of jobs. Now many of us have begun pondering the inner strength it takes to run directly into danger instead of away from it -- all in an effort to save other people's lives. This intense selflessness and bravery have caught the country's imagination, turning firefighters and cops into instant icons. ... Many lesbians and gay men may, in fact, have been finding themselves with conflicting feelings about these "manly" professions, which, though esteemed for bravery, have traditionally been bastions of homophobia and sexism.
In recent years, reports of firefighters bullying their gay and female co-workers have been widespread and persistent. In 1999, an internal review by Britain's Fire Service found the levels of homophobia and sexism among firefighters in that country "difficult to believe." Although there's been no such national report in the United States, numerous local incidents of harassment of gay and female firefighters suggest that findings over here might be very similar. Only weeks before the terrorist assault, for example, gay firefighters in Boston joined female colleagues and firefighters of colour in filing complaints against the city's fire department. One straight black female firefighter told the Associated Press horror stories of finding broken glass inside her work boots and having her oxygen mask and gloves stolen by fellow firefighters. The perpetrators of such "jokes," she said, "are more than just a few bad apples."
The problem with "manliness" is that it too easily turns into stupidity and violence when that "manliness" seems threatened.
What makes a man? What makes manliness? Whatever it is, it should mean that you (generically speaking) are confident that, however you behave and whatever you do, you're still a man. And you can let others be their own sort of man, and it doesn't matter because it doesn't reflect on you, doesn't have anything to do with you. Putting glass in a firefighter's boot? Stealing their equipment? Man, that takes some serious brain damage. You don't alienate people whom you may need to count on to pull your own fat out of the fire. You don't compromise their effectiveness -- which, in turn, compromises yours. You don't do something that delays you getting to a fire, that costs people their lives, that could possibly even cost you your own -- a delay could mean that the situation got worse, which makes the difference. That's no kind of man worth the name. That's barely any kind of human.
Also, sir, a good number of the firefighters and police and soldiers who have been involved in all this are women. Yes, most of them are men, to be sure, but not all. However, by your formulation, all the women firefighters and police and soldiers are apparently actually men in drag. Who knew? Since many of them have husbands or boyfriends ... well, I'd wager that the men in their lives would be rather surprised to discover that they've been sleeping with men all this time. Their reactions would probably be very ugly indeed.
Courage doesn't have anything to do with testosterone.
(Also, having read that particular Bleat ... what on earth has what he said to do with what what you said? He clearly didn't mean it THAT way. ANYONE who plays with Legos needs motors. Now if you were talking about his reaction to Parker Posey, that would make more sense.)
(And, purely on the geeky side, talking about that UK site that I link to ... man, that is some sucky site design.)
Replies: 1 Comment
I'm not a straight woman. I'm not a straight man. I'm a gay man. I find confident manliness attractive, whether exuded by a straight man, or a gay one. I long for the day, however, when most straight men can act as confidently, and politely as most straight women do, in dealing with their attractiveness.
Posted by Ray Eckhart @ 12/12/2001 01:07 PM CST
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
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