#gayshaming

Being mocked as an adult by adults I’ll start off by saying that I’m okay with people having their own opinions and believes, but what I’m not okay with is what comes along with it, at least most of the times: the mocking. People seem to be very passionate about their own points of view and they really want everyone to know that they don’t approve them.

That’s what happened today. During my one-hour-break from university, some of my friends and I decided to have lunch in a McDonald’s nearby. We were eating our meals, when five boys approached us. They started playing with us, pointing out the most random things just to seem cooler. All of us were shocked, ’cause something like that hadn’t happened to any of us in years. We usually expect people our age to be grown-up, but apparently some of them are still childish and immature. They started off with me, asking me if I was GAY. WHAT A GREAT PIECE OF NEWS BITCH. I answered with a proud “Well, yeah, a little bit”. They didn’t quite catch my sarcasm and they replied “We could tell, huh”. They went on saying “Well, we’re not very keen on boys, we like gurls, ya know”. Wow, what a great thing to be proud of. At that point I was debating whether to throw up on them or just leave it there. I opted for the polite option, unfortunately. I do regret it tho. But then they started messing around with the other friends I was there with. They mocked a close friend of mine cause she was sitting with her legs spread open. “You like opening your legs, don’t you?”. That was absolutely rude and unnecessary. Again, we tried not to be rude, so she just replied with a heroic “I love it, indeed”. Lastly, they strongly felt the need to let one of my other friends know that she’s hot. Strangely, we didn’t want them to stop. Their stupidity was kinda funny and entertaining. When they left, we were so mad we didn’t offend them as much as we wanted to. We went on talking about it, ’cause that type of mocking hadn’t been happening in YEARS. That’s literally something a gang of 13-year-old horny ass boys would say. They are our age. TWENTY YEARS OF AGE. Mind-blowing.

Personally, I’m not used to being mocked anymore. The people I’m with are very intelligent and mature, so they don’t care what my sexual orientation is, or at least they don’t talk shit about me. I’ve never fully appreciated it until I experienced this today. When things like this happen, I find myself not prepared at all, cause it doesn’t happen anymore.

The Breakfast Club (1985)

John Hughes anyone? There’s definitely more from him to come. Again, just more 80′s homophobia which seemed to be a theme of Hughes early in his films dealing with teenage angst.  

This begs the question, is this actual homophobia? or is it depicting the realism of how teenagers really act?  Both can be true. It’s the age-old adage, chicken & the egg/nature & nurture. Yes, it depicts how horrible children can really be to each other and at the same time reinforces to the viewer the social standard of how to speak, how to act, what to wear, and how to fit in. You can be a jock, a goth, a prom queen, a geek, or a punk. But know this, being gay will not be tolerated or endorsed. 

Teen Wolf (1985)

A werewolf? A-OK. But sleeping with a dude? No Way! Not in the 80′s. Gay shaming was the norm then even-though it’s not even important to any part of the plot and often found in teen movies of the time. 

Not that people should allow movies to decide any part of what they do. Movies still subconsciously dictate (whether we want them to or not) what the cultural norms are. i.e. Plato’s allegorical cave. So I image this would have a huge effect on kids at the time, making sure they know it is wrong before getting any wild ideas and leaving their parents house/cave.