Coalition For Equal Marriage have released their homo promo video, Homecoming.
It would be silly to criticise it for being "sentimental" - I presume much of the point was that they wanted to tug at a broad range of heart-strings.
Just like it's meant to be "sweet" and "nice" and "inoffensive".
"No horses were frightened during the making of this picture" etc.
And the chaps seem a bit Merchant-Ivory, if you know worra I mean...
But I wonder why the case for gay marriage so often seems to be conflated with military service - there's a (real-life) soldier and his boyfriend on the recent cover of Attitude magazine.
"Have you heard the one about the Iraq veteran who can fight for his country but can't get married?"
They seem a lovely couple, but I wonder why such imagery has been given such prominence in this debate.
Why are soldier boys the poster boys for UK marriage equality?
Is a gay soldier the ultimate image of a "good gay"?
Do they show that gay men can be "real men"?
A certain kind of gay man loves this idea - witness the paroxysms of excitement over that photo of the real-life US marine kissing his boyfriend that went viral earlier this year.
Homecoming: Not Queens.
Is the argument that we should be allowed to gay-marriaged as a thank you for helping out in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Is this like the less radical suffragettes who threw himself into the Great War effort to show their loyalty to king and country?
Is this emotional war porn?
Support our gay boys!
Just askin'.
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Maybe the video is aimed at a particular mindset - it reminds me a bit of that Cameron speech about him being pro-gay marriage because he's a Conservative.
ReplyDeleteWith the Union Jacks in the background, the posh looking, clean-cut stars and the military theme it seems solely directed at conservative right-wing types.
Not so sure about the Attitude cover - it's nice to have real actual people on the cover of a gay mag for once instead of (straight) celebrities, but what's the point of the cover line? Presumably, most who buy the magazine will be both pro-gay marriage and aware of the fact that there are gay soldiers who - like all of us - can't get married.
The reliance on these kinds of stories as a short-hand, presumably, for Real Man Gays is depressing. What about gay nurses? A profession which is just as noble and courageous, possibly more so, than killing savages in far off lands. And one which is far more beneficial to all of us.
It seems to me quite a confused pozish - as to which indeed you alluded to indeed you did, Fagburn.
Anywho:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izVFZG26hNY
^ 'Maybe the video is aimed at a particular mindset...'
DeleteThat's what I was trying to say, But I clearly said it rather badly... :(
No, you said it better than I could - I realised after I'd posted that I was basically repeating what you'd written.
DeleteNothing new to say, as per... :'(
But I don't think I really made it clear that it's not really aimed at people like me, but at a mainstream (and I guess mainly straight) audience...
ReplyDeleteI may change it when you're not looking.
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That's strange, I'm sure there is no rank in the British Army with two stripes and a crown.
ReplyDeleteYes there is, check your info. Cetain regt's have different ranks!
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