No Love for The Gender Bender
Disclaimer: I do have a sense of humor and laugh at lots of stuff that makes fun of gays. Taken as a whole, we’re a very curious people.
But playing to boring stereotypes isn’t funny. It’s not offensive; it’s just not funny. For example, think of the old black-guys-dance-like-this-and-white-guys-dance-like-this routine, which I saw just last week on some late-night stand-up show. If that was ever funny, it’s really not funny anymore.
With that out of the way, go read “A Brief History of Gay Robots” at Radar Online, and let me know what you think in the comments.
For the lazy, here’s a sample of their qualifications for being “gay”.
C3PO
“The fussy drone’s permanently agog eyes suggest a certain feyness.”
HAL 9000
He’s “prone to queeny fits of jealousy and rage.”
Data
He’s rated as “bi”, but it’s not clear for what reason. Possibly because he likes S&M and has a cat?
The worst offense is putting Bender on the list (rated “steak and beer”, which I guess means “straight”) without mentioning The Gender Bender!
July 4th, 2008 at 9:49 am
The zinger about the Tin Man literally being a friend of Dorothy caused me to snort but for the most part - their reasoning just hurt my brain. There’s a man at my bus stop who has agog eyes but they don’t make him look gay - just crazy.