Creepy Yes on Prop 8 ad

[sqbr]

I know this is old news (I saw a vague reference to this on a metaquotes discussion and googled it), but I just found it really bizarre seeing an ad actively promoting homophobia. I guess it hadn't really sunk in that that's what people were doing.

Yes on 8 TV Ad: Everything To Do With Schools
I imagine the others are just as bad but that was enough for me.

Am I the only heterosexual person who would have no problem with my kids reading gay fairytales? Then again, when I was a kid we used to play pretend at being lesbians(*) so, you know... :D

(*)I'm trying to think of a way to make this sound less weird, but in retrospect, it was pretty weird. Ironically, the only boy we let play is the only one of us who ended up actually being gay, afaict. See! No harm done!

Comments

[mothwentbad.livejournal.com]

Wait, you pretended to be lesbians as kids? I didn't even know what the word meant yet.

[alias_sqbr]

Really? Kids at my school were very aware of homosexuality. Sure, it was almost always used as a thing you accused boys of to make them upset, but we were definitely aware of it. When I bumped into a younger girl from my school a few years later she said "You went to that posh girls school right? Aren't they all lesbians? Are YOU a lesbian?".

Then again, we are Australian :D

[mothwentbad.livejournal.com]

How does a kid pretend to be a lesbian in Australia?

[alias_sqbr]

See reply to baby_elvis below. It was ok to pretend, same way it was ok to pretend to be a horse or a murderer but you'd get into trouble if you tried to say you actually were one :) (Also I don't think any of the boys would have pretended to be gay, that would have gotten them beat up)

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

Must. Trust. Tinkly. Music.

[alias_sqbr]

Don't give into it Steph! Be strong!

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

I remember playing marriages as kids, we never married boys in those games. Marrying other girls was much nicer :P

I never did get why my parents said girls could only marry guys.

[alias_sqbr]

Same. And yet it never occurred to me as an actual real life option for myself :) (Probably a good thing, since I would have been disappointed a few years later when I realised I was straight)

[baby-elvis.livejournal.com]

Gay fairy tales are fine with this heterosexual mother.

What did playing lesbian entail?

My games were purely straight, I'm afraid. My Barbie and Jeanette's Ken used to get it on an awful lot.

[alias_sqbr]

As I recall it was a soap opera based on General Hospital (which I had never seen, but the creator of the game had, and I was familiar with soap operas in general) Reconstructing, it was something like this:

Dr Kathryn! This patient is dying!
Can't you see I'm too busy for that now? I'm trying to poison Dr Lisa!
How can you do this to me? I loved you!
Well I never loved you! My heart has always belonged to Dr Molly!
And I love you too! *fake clinch*
Fine! Well if you try to kill me, I'll kill you all! With this knife! Gahhh!
*much chasing, squealing and giggling*

As I recall one of my barbies was involved in a complicated love triangle with my Ken and Lisa's barbie, eventually the evil older barbie killed them both and I buried them in the garden. Ah, the innocence of childhood :)

[penchaft.livejournal.com]

My Barbies used to end up crucified by the mighty dinosaurs a lot.

I wonder now how the dinosaurs tied the rope knots.

[alias_sqbr]

Yes, because that's the first question that comes to mind when you consider women being crucified by dinosaurs...

[mandragora2003.livejournal.com]

...whereas my barbies usually got ritually burned at the stake. I *hated* it when people gave me dolls to play with.

The attitude was partially explained by the fact that I thought you got to pick your own gender at about age nine or ten. (Well, you heard people saying that someone was turning into a young lady...). As far as I could tell, boys got to do all the fun stuff, wheras being a girl meant dresses and sitting still a lot. Bah! I resented attempts to make me be a girl.

[alias_sqbr]

I think I had a very different idea about gender than you, since I think we're fairly equivalent mixes of "girly" and "not girly" but since I was brought up to believe that anyone could be physically strong, scientific etc, (in fact academic mindedness was gendered somewhat female at my primary school) but that boys were inherently violent, sporty, macho etc I decided boys were horrible and I only liked the company of girls. Then again, you were a much more violent child than me, so maybe not :D

[mothwentbad.livejournal.com]

Wait, you pretended to be lesbians as kids? I didn't even know what the word meant yet.

[alias_sqbr]

Really? Kids at my school were very aware of homosexuality. Sure, it was almost always used as a thing you accused boys of to make them upset, but we were definitely aware of it. When I bumped into a younger girl from my school a few years later she said "You went to that posh girls school right? Aren't they all lesbians? Are YOU a lesbian?".

Then again, we are Australian :D

[mothwentbad.livejournal.com]

How does a kid pretend to be a lesbian in Australia?

[alias_sqbr]

See reply to baby_elvis below. It was ok to pretend, same way it was ok to pretend to be a horse or a murderer but you'd get into trouble if you tried to say you actually were one :) (Also I don't think any of the boys would have pretended to be gay, that would have gotten them beat up)

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

Must. Trust. Tinkly. Music.

[alias_sqbr]

Don't give into it Steph! Be strong!

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

I remember playing marriages as kids, we never married boys in those games. Marrying other girls was much nicer :P

I never did get why my parents said girls could only marry guys.

[alias_sqbr]

Same. And yet it never occurred to me as an actual real life option for myself :) (Probably a good thing, since I would have been disappointed a few years later when I realised I was straight)

[baby-elvis.livejournal.com]

Gay fairy tales are fine with this heterosexual mother.

What did playing lesbian entail?

My games were purely straight, I'm afraid. My Barbie and Jeanette's Ken used to get it on an awful lot.

[alias_sqbr]

As I recall it was a soap opera based on General Hospital (which I had never seen, but the creator of the game had, and I was familiar with soap operas in general) Reconstructing, it was something like this:

Dr Kathryn! This patient is dying!
Can't you see I'm too busy for that now? I'm trying to poison Dr Lisa!
How can you do this to me? I loved you!
Well I never loved you! My heart has always belonged to Dr Molly!
And I love you too! *fake clinch*
Fine! Well if you try to kill me, I'll kill you all! With this knife! Gahhh!
*much chasing, squealing and giggling*

As I recall one of my barbies was involved in a complicated love triangle with my Ken and Lisa's barbie, eventually the evil older barbie killed them both and I buried them in the garden. Ah, the innocence of childhood :)

[penchaft.livejournal.com]

My Barbies used to end up crucified by the mighty dinosaurs a lot.

I wonder now how the dinosaurs tied the rope knots.

[alias_sqbr]

Yes, because that's the first question that comes to mind when you consider women being crucified by dinosaurs...

[mandragora2003.livejournal.com]

...whereas my barbies usually got ritually burned at the stake. I *hated* it when people gave me dolls to play with.

The attitude was partially explained by the fact that I thought you got to pick your own gender at about age nine or ten. (Well, you heard people saying that someone was turning into a young lady...). As far as I could tell, boys got to do all the fun stuff, wheras being a girl meant dresses and sitting still a lot. Bah! I resented attempts to make me be a girl.

[alias_sqbr]

I think I had a very different idea about gender than you, since I think we're fairly equivalent mixes of "girly" and "not girly" but since I was brought up to believe that anyone could be physically strong, scientific etc, (in fact academic mindedness was gendered somewhat female at my primary school) but that boys were inherently violent, sporty, macho etc I decided boys were horrible and I only liked the company of girls. Then again, you were a much more violent child than me, so maybe not :D