P O S T E D B Y E N R I Q U E
As a gay pre-teen, I had only an inkling of why I was so strangely attracted to the 1960s TV series . I wanted to call Sandy and Bud Ricks on the telephone, wait until they answered, then hang up, giggling like a little girl.
Little did I know that .â€
P O S T E D B Y E N R I Q U E
The February 2006 issue of seeks perfection in the malformed and gravitas in the patently silly. Although the editors playfully dubbed it the “Swimsuit Special,†they could just as accurately have described it as a transformative hermeneutics applied to the nature of contradiction.
A (the brand that brings you “Successful Livingâ€) pictures the apotheosis of our militarist culture, when the earth and everything on it is camouflaged for War. At this key moment in our history—now, one assumes—we can most effectively counter the ravages of the military-industrial-academic complex by purchasing knit shirts and distressed jeans. Missiles are peacekeepers. Arbeit macht frei.
An ad from Abreva asserts that “Nobody looks HOT in a cold sore.†But would be attractive even if half his body were covered with lesions, leading one to conclude that the ad is a kind of koan whose meaning is inaccessible to rational understanding, a post-postmodern deconstruction of the HOT/not-HOT binary that moves the reader to abandon whatever good judgment is left to him. Not likely? You’re reading this screed, aren’t you?
Finally, in an article on his new line of DVDs, Aaron Star declares that “[g]ay men—or men in general—need to celebrate the erect penis. It is a point of power for one’s masculinity.†Star’s statement once again privileges the male even though, as Aristophanes over 24 centuries ago, the phallus is a silly structure, made even sillier when it’s dressed up with and .
P O S T E D B Y F E L I X
The House of Representatives approved a today defining the Iraq War as between a man and a woman.
Congressmen speaking in favor of the resolution argued that it would help preserve the sanctity of killing people.
I’m glad they got this off their chests before the fall elections.
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Image source:
P O S T E D B Y F E L I X
On the eve of on an , I adapt the verse appearing on a of the 1900s …
Not Particular
I know you’re not particular to a fault
Though I’m not sure you’ll never be sued for assault
You’re so fond of sex that even a mensch
Attracts your gross fancy despite his man-stench
We invited Enrique the Gay Philosopher to guest blog on White Courtesy Telephone. In this installment, he uses the latest issue of to explore the BIG QUESTIONS that exercise the minds of people in the gay community …
There’s a cover photo of Madonna, then , six short pages into the magazine: a beautiful man, strong-jawed, bearded and most noticeably dirty. But why? The most compelling explanation I’ve heard is that it’s a visual pun: Acknowledging that we have succeeded in sweeping aside many barbarous stereotypes, the editors of the magazine now ironically encourage sex with a miner.
The interview with Madonna raises new questions. No one will stop calling it the Eiffel Tower if I replace one of its beams. But what if I replace ten? or a hundred? or all of them? At what point does it strain our sense to identify it with the structure built by Gaustave Eiffel? Philosophers call this the problem of identity conditions for scattered objects, and it arises with other historic structures like Cher. We might remove a rib here, enhance a breast there, replace her nose entirely, so that over time we’re left with only a few ratty bits of the original Cher. Would the creature then really be Cher? I should mention that Madonna claims her was achieved without plastic surgery. Yeah, right, and I’m the Eiffel Tower!
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