Is The James Franco & Seth Rogen Parody of Kanye West Video Homophobic?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCGZ6tJdtmc
Although the James Franco & Seth Rogen parody of Kanye West new video is considered funny is it really? The immediate reaction people have is Franco & Rogen are just being funny making fun of rapper Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s arrogance.
Franco and Rogen are homophobes, except they utilize humour as a mask to conceal their anti gay prejudice.
Franco has used male homosexuality as a gimmick to get free publicity, yet he clearly has no respect for gay men!
The subliminal message is still homophobia against male homosexuality is palatable if the homophobes are young white heterosexual male actors. We live in a racist, homophobic world where the obnoxious behaviour of white heterosexual men is giving a free pass. Imagine, if two young black male actors made this parody video? Would the mainstream media and public be so accepting of it or would they scorn them?
Some people might argue, that it is simply a joke not be taken seriously. However, humour has a subtext, a message that is beneath the surface. The homophobia Franco and Rogen are engendering is that male homosexuality is wrong.
The anti gay message Franco and Rogen are spreading must be challenged and not dismissed as just comedy.
The general public is laughing at the fact two famous young male actors are kissing and being affectionate with each other. People are not just laughing at Kanye West, they also have a platform to being homophobic because Franco and Rogen provided the space for this to occur. Male homosexuality is ridiculed, gay men being affectionate with each other is seen as a joke. Since Franco and Rogen are both white, heterosexual men, they utilize their white male privilege to humiliate gay men.
Once again, two men kissing is considered funny and disgusting at the same time. Although, James Franco claims to be an ally of the gay community he has a propensity to be an opportunist. Franco is no friend of the gay male community, he utilizes male homosexuality to shock his heterosexual audience. James Franco is a bigot, but his bigotry is covert not overt. Franco’s art about gay male sexuality which he manipulates for his personal game is an example of his prejudice.
Since Franco is heterosexual, some gay men fall for Franco’s prejudice they give him a free pass for mocking male homosexuality.
Franco has white male skin privilege and since he is handsome, gay men ignore his anti gay prejudice. However, just because Franco is a good looking man, does this give him a pass for being a jerk?
Franco isn’t as gay positive as some gay men assume. For instance, Franco’s short film Interior Leather Bar, was created to alarm heterosexual audiences since he was recreating portions of the 1980 cult gay classic Cruising. Of course, Franco was not involved in any of the gay male sex scenes.
Franco’s so called art is meant to shock, he feels comfortable exploiting male homosexuality for his own personal fame. However, Franco won’t get too close to male homosexuality and he is quick to point out he isn’t gay. Franco’s coy attitude about his sexuality is lame and pathetic. Franco needs a new gimmick and move on from male homosexuality he is a coward.
Only a coward would claim to be an ally of the gay male community yet consistently use homosexuality to alarm the general public. There is no substance behind Franco’s art, it lacks true meaning.
Male homosexuality is just a prop for Franco, a joke, not to be taken seriously. In addition, since Franco has never clarified his true sexuality, he is assumed to be heterosexual. Franco utilizes his heterosexual male privilege to mock, humiliate, and discriminate against gay men.James Franco is the enemy of gay men he is not an ally.
NPR Article: More Single Gay & Heterosexual Men Are Deciding To Start Their Own Families.
B.J. Holt always wanted to be a dad. As he approached 40, with no life partner in sight, he felt a version of the ticking biological clock.
“The ‘having the children thing’ started to overwhelm the desire to have the relationship first,” Holt says. “They sort of switched on me.”
So Holt decided to go it alone. A few years ago, he used an egg donor and a surrogate to create a family of his own.
First came Christina, now 4, a strawberry-blond bundle of energy who loves to stage ballet performances in the living room of their New York City apartment.
Little brother Payson is 2, and dissolves into giggles when daddy swings him up to his shoulder for a bounce.
Challenging Stereotypes
When Holt decided to have kids, he didn’t know any other single dad by choice. But family and friends were ecstatic and supportive.
As for strangers, Holt has gotten used to their assumptions about his family. He laughs as he recalls driving through a toll booth on a recent weekend.
If a guy gets called because his kid is sick and he has to leave, it’s like, ‘Where’s your wife?’
– Brian Tessier, founder of a hotline for prospective single fathers
“There I was, in the car with my two kids in the backseat,” he says, “and I was fumbling for the money. And [the woman in the tollbooth] said, ‘Take your time, take your time. Daddy’s without the mom today!’ ” Holt says he just smiled and drove on.
Holt is gay. Steve Majors, communications director for the same-sex advocacy group Family Equality Council, says many young gay men once believed living openly gay meant not having children.
“Either you were in a heterosexual relationship and having children, or you were gay,” Majors says. “You couldn’t have both.”
But with the rise of same-sex marriage, gay men have pioneered the use of reproductive technology to have children. Majors says single gay men now email him or show up at parenting seminars, wanting to learn more about starting a family.
At the same time, gender roles for straight men are evolving. With more stay-at-home dads, and fathers generally spending more time caring for kids, advocates say men are realizing they don’t necessarily need a wife to be a parent.
Brian Tessier recently started 411-4-DAD, a hotline for prospective single fathers. “I think we probably right now are up to about 30 calls a month,” he says.
Tessier adopted two boys through foster care. He’s gay, but he says half the calls he gets are from straight men. Many believe they can’t legally adopt on their own, he says.
Tessier assures them that’s not true, though they may well face stigma and suspicion.
“I think that it’s a bias on the part of the agencies and the system itself that questions men’s ability and their intentions of why they would want to be a single father,” he says.
Tessier also sees lingering sexism in the workplace.
“If a mom is in a meeting and all of a sudden she gets called because her kid is sick, nobody raises an eyebrow,” he says. “But if a guy gets called because his kid is sick and he has to leave, it’s kind of like, ‘Where’s your wife?’ ”
‘I Will Always Be There To Love Them’
The Williams Institute, a think-tank on same-sex issues at the University of California, Los Angeles, finds there were more than one million never-married men — both gay and straight — raising children in 2010.
Gary Gates, a demographer with the institute, says that’s three times more than two decades ago. The census doesn’t ask how many of those men are raising children alone versus with an unmarried partner, or if they are single fathers by choice, but adoption and surrogacy agencies say they are seeing more such dads — and not just in the U.S.
Avi Brecher, an Israeli, has traveled the globe to create a family. Speaking one evening via Skype, he was holding 3-month-old Ariel, born this spring to a surrogate in Minnesota. Daniel, 6, adopted from Guatemala, was at his side.
Related NPR Stories
Gifting Birth: A Woman Helps Build Other Families
Surrogate Charity Lovas has given birth to eight children; three of them are her own.
Making Babies: 21st Century Families
NPR explores how advances in reproductive technology are changing when and how we create families.
Brecher says his dream from his mid-20s was “to have a family with three children and a dog.” He was married briefly, but it didn’t work out. He’d still love to find a wife, he says, but as a pediatrician, he’s confident he can raise his kids well on his own.
Still, he makes sure the children spend time with women, including his mother and a nurse who baby-sits them.
“If it’s female friends of mine,” Brecher says, “I let them hold Ariel so she can feel the touch of a female, which I believe is different from a male.”
Back in New York, B.J. Holt keeps a photo of a smiling, pregnant woman on a table right by the front door. She’s the surrogate who carried both of his kids. He calls her their “special friend,” and she has already visited twice. Holt says he knows his kids will eventually have questions about their family.
“Even though I’m going to have a struggle of getting them to understand why we don’t have a mommy in our picture, they will always know that I’m there to care for them,” he says. “I will always be there to love them. And that’s all that ultimately matters.”
Is The Tennis Player Akgul Amanmuradova Male, Female, Or Intersex?
Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia defeat Akgul Amanurandova of Uzbekistan in the second round of Wimbledon 6-2 6-7 6-4. However, I was stunned when I looked at Amanumuradova she looks like a man! Amanmuradova is six foot three and she serves huge.
Amanmuradova has an extremely butch masculine appearance she has no hips, no breasts. It is hard to believe this tennis player is a female. Just look at Amanmuradova she has broad shoulders just like a man. I thought to myself, is this person really a female tennis player?
Amanmuradova does not wear a skirt, even though all the other women tennis players at Wimbledon wear skirts. Amanmuradova wears shorts just like the male tennis players.
I wonder if the WTA tour needs to complete a gender verification test on Amanmuradova?
Gayblackcanada 