Categories
Gay Politics

On different stages in gay identity…

I’ve been through three major episodes in my quest for a decent gay identity, and none of them have really fitted right. First came the pre-gay “Can’t we be just like everyone else” episode, where I wore what everyone else wore, sneered at gay people “celebrating” their difference on television and tried to cover up any “unnatural” urges I might have had to classmates at school and Uni.
Then came the early-gay “apologist” mode, where I appeared comfortable enough about the whole thing to declare myself gay to friends and family, and to live as a gay man, with the continual proviso that I should act in a politically appropriate way. This was when I was involved at quite a substantial level in student gay politics.
And then came the mid-gay, “fuck it” approach to the world, which is all about not allowing myself to pander to the whims of straight bigots or gay bigots, but just get on with things as loudly and annoyingly as possible. This stage has been great fun, and I sometimes wonder why so many people seem to spend so much time in the first two stages before realising the wonder of being a bloody nuisance whenever they get the chance.
With all this in mind, however, I decided to have a wander around some gay news, information and shopping sites – to do a survey, as it were, of the state of the gay (inter)nation. And unfortunately, I immediately came up against this: Gay E-cards so hideous and twee that it’s like my grandmother knitted them in a gesture of political solidarity.
I fear this is the final stage of the evolution of one’s gay identity. The individual concerned becomes so comfortable with being gay, that they actually start to return to the childish state of taking it seriously, and are again completely unable to see any irony or humour in anything at all. Only this time they’re buying each other bunches of chrysanthemums and washer dryers. I swear to god, the people who think these cards are cool can no longer be anything even vaguely resembling human. If this is the future of gay life, then I am a resolute homophobe.

Categories
Random

If you sneeze, you'll miss it…

Is it just me, or has Derek been at Blogger about the length of time it takes for a reasonably-sized booger to be ejected from one’s nostril during the process of blowing one’s nose? I don’t get it. I thought he was supposed to be Creative Director or something?

Categories
Gay Politics

Super-villain or cringing victim?

There’s a really bizarre article about Richard Hatch, the so-called “Evil Queen” of America’s “Survivor” (which we don’t get over here in UK) over at the Washington Post: “Hard to Beat, Impossible to Avoid“. I kind of skim read the article until my eyes got caught by this little paragraph:

“The straight world is conditioned to think of homosexuality as a handicap, a weakness, a fey stereotype. The gay rights movement tries to present a warm, united front and yet somehow amplifies the notion that gay men and lesbians are marginal, lacking in power.”

Whatever the rest of the article says, this is a truth that will echo down through the ages. I prefer the “We Are Everywhere” approach. I’d rather be a super-villian than a cringing victim.

Categories
Random

Boylog thinks I'm cute…

Yay. Boylog thinks I’m cute. How cool is that? And I quote:

“Tom has taken the big step and gotten a webcam. This is not good, as my attraction to him has now grown exponentially.”

Categories
Random

Almost functioning webcams…

Ha. Thanks to Luke, I now have an almost functioning webcam. This is a significant step forward for me – particularly as I have had such overwhelming trouble with Oculus (I don’t want to go into details, but it seems like a complete waste of money to me). I’m using StripCam now, which seems to do the job extremely well.

I haven’t built my little webcam pop-up yet, but in the meantime you can get direct and unedited access here (remember clicking on this link signals your acceptance of the terms of watching me mooch about in my bedroom): “I don’t care about Tom’s hair, I still think he’s fit”. I’ll neaten things up tonight, hopefully.

Categories
Random

Plastic everywhere…

I should also point out that I have nothing to do with plasticboy.com – which is another currently operating weblog out there. Plastic everywhere. It must be a sign of modern living.

Categories
Random

On plasticbag.de…

I should point out that I have absolutely nothing to do with plasticbag.de, that I think it is an amazing site, and that I didn’t know it existed until after I bought plasticbag.org. Otherwise – perhaps – I would have spent another eight months trying to decide on a suitable domain name.

Not that it would have mattered much, it seems, since at any point I can be defrauded of my domain name without the slightest possibility for recompense. Or at least this is how it appears at the moment: “Sex.com Wasn’t Stolen” [wired.com]

Categories
Personal Publishing

The future is masturbatory…

Sometimes I think it’s important to just feel good about yourself. So that’s what I’m going to do. I read a post at Metafilter praising blogger and then I read a snarky comment about weblogs in general. Such comments are bloody boring in my opinion, but tend to run along these lines: 1) What you write is pointless. 2) What you write isn’t much fun. 3) Why don’t you do something properly creative.

In fact, all three of these points can be described in one simple phrase: “weblogs are wank”. I find this kind of thing really amusing, as it seems to be wrapped up in a weirdly strict Catholic idea of what is appropriate sex. Clearly “wank” is considered “unproductive”, “wasteful”, “pointless” and therefore bad by these people. Weblogs are also considered “unproductive”, “wasteful” and “pointless” and also therefore “bad”.

But pretty much no one considers masturbation a sin any more, and a goodly proportion of the world seems to be up to it. And while some people are ashamed, most people are just getting on with it, some more creatively than others. I guess my question is this – why is there a double standard? Does everything have to be productive to be good? I for one am making a stand for the web masturbator. I say to thee: “build it, write it, show it off”.

The future is wank…

Categories
Random

On competitive impulses…

Christ. Plasticbag.org is mentioned twice on beebo.org’s metalog in two days. I think that’s pretty cool. Whether that means I should be out buying a pocket protector is debatable.

I had a long conversation with Mark the other day about beebo’s related Weblog Rating page. When I started weblogging, I got really involved in the fight for supremacy on this chart for a while – not in any aggressive way, but for some reason it really mattered to me. Then my interest gradually cooled off. Whether that’s because I got bored of the whole idea, gave up on it, or found something better to do with my time is another matter completely.

Mark’s still going through the competitive stage and I spent our conversation trying to persuade him to think of it as a bit of a game, and nothing more. But then I go and move domain. I’m a bit unsure as to the quality of the design, so I’m really sensitive to people’s opinions of the site. And of course all beebo’s ratings page consists of is a guide to how interesting people think your site is. Suddenly, quite out of the blue, I can feel all those weird reptile brain impulses creeping into gear again. It’s debatable whether or not this is a good thing. Part of me thinks that adrenalin never did anyone any harm. But then again, it’s only a web site…

Categories
Personal Publishing

On British Blogs…

I started weblogging pretty soon after blogger launched. I think it had been going about a month and a half. And when I started, I don’t think there were many of us doing this, and certainly not that many in the UK. Tonight I was talking to a few UK webloggers (many of whom I am meeting up with on Thursday night) and suddenly realised how much things have changed over the last ten months.

So I decided to compile (more for my benefit than yours) a quick list of well-designed and interesting British weblogs. It’s by no means exhaustive, and is based heavily on Jen’s work at the GBlogs Gateway.