Thursday, April 30, 2009

You Took the Words Outta My Mouth: Miss California vs. Gay Marriage

By now, you've probably heard that although Miss California loves living in a country where everyone gets to make free choices (like the choice to have bigger boobs!), she'd like to be a part of limiting (or continuing to limit) the choices of the GLBT community. Mainly the whole icky marriage part, but she probably wouldn't say no to putting the kibosh on the Matthew Shepard Act that, if passed, will give states federal funds to prosecute hate crimes. I could totz she her agreeing that Shepard's attack was less of a hate crime and more of a whoops-a-daisy robbery. So to sum up, Miss California is pretty much a huge bag of hot useless air and thus has been invited by the conservatives from the National Organization for Marriage (least adorable NOM of all time) to come to DC and spread her intolerance.

If you're not familiar with NOM, check out this fear mongering campaign video where lots of white people (and a few tokens) are terrified of the one thing that will never happen if GLBT people marry: getting their rights trampled and/or infringed on. Gay marriage for these "Left Behind" extras is like a horrifying amalgamation of Voldemort, The Running of the Bulls, and being forced Clockwork-Orange-style to watch "Religulous" with Bill Maher. Seriously, people, right now your worst fear is your kid going to school and learning about civil rights? That's the big problem in your life? It sounds like a little house foreclosure would clear that irrationality up, right quick.


So that is what Miss. California is worried about. And to avoid taking a trip to word vomit village, I'm just gonna direct you to The Superficial, where they took the words outta my mouth:
So, let me get this straight, Jesus is cool with fake tits, morally bankrupt beauty pageants and constant media whoring, but not gay marriage? Huh. I never really pictured JC as a homophobic douchebag from Orange County, but that seems to be the message these days. Keep spreading the Good News, Carrie!
Also as I was writing this, Samhita over at Feministing put up a bit about the connection to feminism:
Her blatant homophobia just adds to the already established straight, cis-woman and white standard of beauty necessary for pageants to exist and to perpetuate the illusion of binary genders.
Wowie zowie! How apt that I listened to the Lunachicks while showering this morning...

6 comments:

Emily said...

I think we are giving Miss California too much power by even thinking twice about her comments. Is anyone really that surprised that there is someone in this beauty pageant world who has these conservative views? When the whole shitstorm started, Perez made it very clear that her statement alienated half of her audience. That may be true, but on such a polarizing subject, of course that is the case. Whether or not we agree to it, there are still a great number of Americans who have that point of view.

I think that the real problem here is how much value we are putting into a catfight between a celebrity blogger and a pageant queen. I think it's pretty clear that a lot of people agree with Miss California (proof: Prop 8 passed.) I guess what I would rather is that we pay a little more attention to someone who's educated on the law rather than someone who's so well versed in the swimsuit competition.

Dustin Meadows! said...

Wait, so that Funny or Die video with Jane Lynch is based on a real thing?

HOW CAN ANYONE FUCKING TAKE THAT COMMERCIAL SERIOUSLY?

"Oh, hey. We're coming together to promote segregation. It makes sense."

Seriously? THE FUCK.

Nance said...

We've seen Miss California before. It was in 1984, Alaska. She was Miss Wasilla and her name was Sarah Palin. I agree with Emily: let's not give this Fembot any more time before she ends up as a candidate for high office.

As much as I love the idea of SP and Rush being the face/voice of the republican party--making the Dems' chance at a DC Dynasty that much more of a lock and safeguarding the rights of women by guaranteeing at least two more seats on the Supreme Court of the United States, every time they open their mouths and someone reports it, it makes the world a little sadder and my country a little uglier.

Eva Destruction said...

...wait a second, so somebody actually was paying attention to what these girls said during the question and vacuous answer sessions of pageants???

it's not just about what she looks like, but her opinions?

Lucé said...

I would argue that this topic is indeed quite worthy of disucussion. This is less about a celebrity spat (as you'll notice I did not mention the incident w/Perez in my post) and more about a new spokesperson stepping forward from her supposed role of representing her state and moving to support a dangerous national organization.

NOM not only perpetuates the kind of bigotry that allowed Prop 8 to pass, but they are using the most debasing fear tactics since the first Bush administration to continue the message that basic civil rights should be denied to specific people. You'll notice that the main focus of the post is calling attention to the bat shit craziness of the org. Bringing this kind of attention is good, it's speaking out against what we see as wrong. I don't care as much about her as a person, as I do about her using her position to nationally shame and degrade people. If she is going to be made out as a martyr by her people, I will use a little bit of my blog space to vilify her.

Of course lots of people share her anti-gay view, but that doesn't mean we should roll over into our intellectually liberal cocoons and ignore it. If I had the time I would write about every asshat that got national recognition for spreading intolerance. They deserved to be shamed over and over again. I would love to see Miss California on every TV show, making a fool out of herself and everyone involved with her until we win. Because until everyone has basic civil rights, we are loosing.

Most importantly, I am interested in listening to, examining, and learning from all. Be them scholars, lawyers, or celebrities. You may listen to or write about whom you like, but to assume there is a hierarchy of importance is negating the impact of popular culture on the mainstream. Not to mention it supposes there is a correct way of analyzing politics, culture, situations. There is no objective way to determine what is, and is not, important. Debating unimportant vs. important becomes a red herring, and is beneficial to none.

Anonymous said...

i also didnt realize the funny or die fake commercial was a parody....that makes it a lot more....funny.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6eddb255b2/a-gaythering-storm

here is the link so other people can enjoy how insane "defending" marriage is.

eryn