Jason Orange: Gone For Good

Aww, he always was my favourite.

If this happened 20 years ago I'd be devastated.

And, lest we forget, Jason was the only member who didn't join in The That's £26 million scummy tax avoidance scam.

Connection?

PS Note the really classy Miliband-bashing at top of page...

Jason Orange: Take That's Moral Conscience

Great to hear Jason Orange didn't get involved in the evil Take That tax dodge scam.
He was always my favourite.
x

PS Sign my e-petition to bring back hanging for Gary Barlow.

Don't worry, Gary, your pal Dave's totally fine with this. 

Gary Barlow does a lot of work for charity, but David Cameron doesn't like to talk about it...

One Direction: There's Always One, Isn't There?

"Well, statistically speaking, one probably is [gay].

"It's crazy with a market like that because 100 percent is young women. And they fantasize about these guys, and then you have the record label and everyone grooming you to make sure that you don't even mention you have a girlfriend.

"So screw the fact that you're gonna come out as being gay. It ruins their whole business plan."

Lance Bass, the gayer that was in 'N Sync, on One Direction via E! Online.  

Maybe. 

Probably Louis - she reeks of gay.

Be nice if it was Niall, though.

Anyway, whatever, Fagburn remembers everyone obsessing over which member of Take That was gay, back in the day, and it turns out none of them were. 

Statistically speaking, it's far more likely that a boyband's manager's gay, eh Lance?

PS Not much going on at the mo, as you may have David Guest.

Update: MTV.com; Would Fangirls REALLY Care If A Member Of One Direction Turned Out To Be Gay? We Say: NOPE! 

You might also ask; would they be surprised? NOPE!

Update2: E! Online's Twitter account was hacked on Saturday and the above in-no-way childish and homophobic message was sent out to its 5.2 million followers.

Schools: Kissing To Be Clever

Eleanor Mills in The Sunday Times today has become the nth journalist to get a feature - 'Cuddling Schoolboys Kiss Homophobia Goodbye'- out of research by Mark McCormack and Eric Anderson on how homophobia is declining among teenage boys.*
The first of these - 'Straight Men Kissing More' - appeared in The Guardian over a year ago; McCormack has a book published later this month.
I don't blame them, it's really interesting stuff. 
“I noticed the difference as soon as I entered the sixth-form common room,” he tells Mills. “Boys were sitting in circles chatting; one had his feet on another boy’s lap, another dangled his arm over another’s shoulder. They were constantly touching each other and always hugged each other hello and goodbye. That would have been unthinkable when I was at school.”
Eleanor Mills helpfully points out; "His book argues that these behaviour changes are due to the normalisation of homosexuality in the culture surrounding these boys as they have grown up."
Well, duh.
She holds up One Direction as proof of how today's young men are all touchy-feely and homo-friendly.
But so were Take That twenty years ago, Smash Hits called them (approvingly) a "Girlie-bloke" pop group. 
Even so it's as obvious as rain that there has been a marked decline in anti-gay attitudes - and their acceptability - across society in the last 25 years.
And, yes, adolescent males, the most neurotically homophobic sector, are losing their "homo-hysteria", too.
Though Fagburn is with Barney Frank, who argued that most young men aren't homophobic, they just think they should be.
The problem with journalists zoning in on Mark McCormack's research is that it's a study of just three British schools, all sixth-form colleges, which arguably foster a culture where appearing "adult", sophisticated and even academic are valued among students.
Something made clear in McCormack's original title for his book, Gay Friendly High Schools. 
But is this - loaded word coming up - normal? 
A 2007 Stonewall survey had 65% of lesbian, gay and bisexual school pupils reporting having experienced homophobic bullying.
97% said they often or frequently heard homophobic remarks. 
Over half of gay pupils said they didn't feel able to be themselves at school.
And over a third did not feel safe or accepted at school.
In a 2009 Stonewall survey; "Nine in ten secondary school teachers... say children and young people, regardless of their sexual orientation, currently experience homophobic bullying, name calling or harassment in their schools."
Homophobia may be declining in significance generally - and homophobia may be seen as "gay" in some colleges - but sadly it still seems to be in rude health in many of our schools. 

* 'It’s Just Not Acceptable Any More’: The Erosion of Homophobia and the Softening of Masculinity at an English Sixth Form. Read it here.

•  The Declining Significance of Homophobia: How Teenage Boys are Redefining Masculinity and Heterosexuality by Mark McCormack is published by Oxford University Press on April 19th.

Postscript: There's an interesting tug of war going on, better documented in the US, where more school kids are coming out, and younger, and are finding more straight pupils supportive, but simultaneously, and perhaps due to this increased visibility, anti-gay bullying may be the worst it has ever been.
Witness for example It Gets Better, the rise of Gay-Straight Alliances in high schools, and all those all-singing, all-dancing mass anti-bullying, pro-gay videos on YouTube.
Here's one of the biggest videos from Cypress Ranch High School, Texas.

Update: A blog from Mark McCormack on Psychology Today - Men 2.0: Masculinities, Sexualities and Homophobia - is a good introduction to what he's arguing. Also see his comments below...

Gary Barlow: Don't Do What I Liked

"The other day I wanted some music in the kitchen and put on one of the music TV channels and a video came on which was so rude I had to turn it off because my nine-year-old was with me.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not a prude but I don't think I really want my children who are nine, 11 and two seeing these kind of videos at that age. I'm a parent."

Stupid Tory Gary Barlow talking to OK! Magazine - and picked up by all the tabloids.

Please let me know what you think about this video for Take That's first single, Do What U Like.
WOULD YOU LET YOUR KIDS WATCH THAT FILTH???

Take That: "Which One's Gay?"

"Opening night, opening night
Take That are back and everyone wants to know
Which one's fat
Which one's thin and
Which one's gay
I don't know but my money's on Jay
I just had some coke and slept with a whore
But hey, I'll be OK
That's what super injunctions are for"

Professional cheeky chappie Robbie Williams raps at the first night of Take That's big comeback/reunion tour - which is getting some rather over-the-top reviews.
"It felt like that almost mythical event: a once in a lifetime pop experience" panted Dave Simpson in The Guardian.
Yes dear.
The cheapest tickets for their upcoming dates at Wembley Stadium are a snip at £57.

Update: Just finished trawling through the Sunday papers, it appears there is fuck all news today. Sorry.

Take That: Take More

I've just been to the newsagents.
Because I live in Kemptown in Brighton they always have a huge pile of The Guardian.
But today they also had two (2!) piles of Radio Times.
No-one cares about the Take That reunion that much, do they?
I don't.
I am positively flummoxed!

Robbie Williams In Gay Video Shame

Brokeback Mountain - it's the gay cultural cliche that just keeps on giving.
When Take That started out way back in 1991 their "Well, we might be..." schtick seemed ever so modern and rather racy.
In 2010, when Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow exchange longing looks and do some serious shirt lifting in the bromantic video for their reunion single Shame, one wonders if they're referencing those two gay cowboys in Brokeback Mountain, or just Nick Clegg and David Cameron's Brokeback Coalition.
But that's progress for you, I guess.

Election: Gary Barlow comes out...

Gary Barlow - the fatter one from out of Take That - has just confirmed what many of us suspected all along - he's a Tory.

The election's as good as won now, surely?