Culture Shocks

It seems ironic that in a world where ‘straight’ cultures are enforced on us from an early age, the world seems to have a love/hate fascination with queer culture. Maybe I just live in a bubble where queer culture is the topic of the day, or maybe I am just surrounded by the age group for whom queer culture is no longer taboo.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall in my friends other conversations, not just to hear what they really say about me, but to see if homosexuality is something which I induce or if they really are obsessed by the world they really don’t know much about.

I find myself spending more and more of my time correcting people about the exact terms and implications of the civil partnerships legislation. I seem to be the one giving mini lectures about gay human rights and their abuses. And everyone who is anyone seems to want to know about gay bars and camp men. In fact, I’m convinced that my guru status on gay issues is more likely to out me than my love of KD Lang – who, it seems straight people have never heard of (but don’t worry – I’ll educate them on lesbian music legends later.)

The coolest friends you can have are gay men, the camper the better. It’s really fun to find out who has ‘turned lesbian’ since they left school. Nothing spices up the conversation better than comparing notes on gay marriage and Christianity.

'Queer Culture' - Or not.

And yet this new found interest, perhaps we’ll call it a hobby, is over shadowed by sheer ignorance. Now maybe I’m just being greedy, but I like the rainbow flag to be for me, and not hijacked by ignorant straights because it’s “cool”. These straight people seem to still believe that all gay men as promiscuous, that all gay men totally LOVE Barbara Streisand, and that it’s all some dingy sub culture which only happens in dark alleyways. Lesbians are fine to talk about, as long as there is a 3 mile radius between them and the nearest one, and after all, they still don’t really understand how we… how we… you know…‘do it’.

I guess it’s comforting in some ways to be able to talk openly about something close to my heart, but I won’t pretend I still find some of their opinions hurtful, and their ignorance frustrating, almost as much as an academic analysis of your sexuality is also insanely annoying.

The only thing I find refreshing about these discussions is that we can have them. The media has played a large role in bringing queer culture to the forefront of everyone’s minds, if not their eyes, even if it is still only to a somewhat limited audience in some cases. Perhaps in time the ignorance will be replaced by tolerance, and the fascination with understanding. I’m not totally sure a straight person can ever understand certain aspects of me, but I guess interest instead of ignoring is certainly a start.

Reccomended links:

If you're after some true lesbian culture, check out this site. It has a list of lesbian images in art from as early as 1500.