Monday, April 09, 2007
Ask Ryan Anything
It's that time of the week again. There are so many things I'd love to blog about, but don't have the time. There are other things I should be blogging about, but have yet to consider. Now's the opportunity to get me on the record about my thoughts on, well, anything. People could ask about my podcast, the controversial Out Magazine's decision to, well, out Anderson Cooper and Jodie Foster or Mitt's adventures in hunting - all two of them. It's an open game!
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14 comments:
I absolutely agree. Whenever my gay friends use the word "fag," I get angry and tell them the following:
"If you guys don't want people to call us fags, then just don't use the word."
However, in the context of that website, I do believe (based on my having read that site for about a year now) that they were using it in a satirical sense - how people would refer to gay people in such a context, etc. That said, I still wouldn't do it.
Only recently have I become more comfortable with gay guys calling each other fag, becuase that was the number one word people used against me in high school when I was enduring violence. Hearing it still makes me a little uncomfortable but I'm getting more used to it. To confront that I once had a friend write faggot on my arm like a tatoo and we took a cool photo of it. I own that word now. It is mine. And I am proud to be a sissy queer faggot.
Context, location, scene... is definately everything. I don't say it in public really - I only say it with close friends who know I know the history of the word and our community. It's one thing when an outrageous drag queen calls the fags up on the stage, it's another when a guy drives by and yells it at you.
Queer has several meanings too and now that it has been reclaimed we still get called queer on the street like its a bad thing. Language and the evolution of it is really tricky to navigate sometimes.
I agree that context is everything, but even so...isn't it time to clean up language generally? In blogging, slang is oftentimes subsituted for thought. The Times has a story about this in today's issue. - Steven
Addendum...I certainly didn't mean Ryan's blog re: slang comment. One of the reasons I read it is because it's intelligent and well written! - Steven
A.) Why does this blog kick so much ass?
B.) If your blg can kick so much ass, why can't there be one decent right-wing Mass blog?
C.) High quality blogging takes a lot of time - do you actually go to class or do you only sleep 3 hours per night?
My English prof "outed" Anderson Cooper to our class.
It was 2004 at UMass Boston and our class was discussing the fantastic and funny M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang. Our discussion turns to gender politics and in the play's afterword, Hwang talks of the derogatory term "Rice Queen" applied to gay white men who perfer younger Asian men.
Our prof, a young, hip Asian woman then asked, "Are you guys in the mood for a little gossip? Guess who my friend told me was one of New York's most notorious 'rice queens'? CNN's Anderson Cooper!"
At the time, half the class probably didn't know who AC was. The rest of us didn't know how to act becasue the prof "broke character". It was simultaneously funny and awkward. I love my liberal faculty at UMB!
I don't know much about this, but it does seem to me Out put AC on the cover to sell magazines. It was not a secret that AC is gay. From what I hear, he is active in the NYC gay community, just not in a prolific way. He chose not to blend his sexuality with his public identity. I can't think of any good jounalistic reason to put AC (and Jodie) on the cover besides sales. AC's sexuality is not news.
Thanks, Tblade, for the softballs - and the chance to talk meta!
Blogging and academic work don't exactly mesh as well as I'd like, but I'm managing to do reasonably well this semester by trying to tie in some of my research with stuff I read about anyway (for example, I've been focusing on GBLT stuff in my civil rights class). I used to have a 3.5 GPA - it's no where near that at this point, but that has way more to do with me being sick of academia than anything else.
The key to a good blog is to be honest, somewhat coherent and to write as close to every day as possible. Also, a good blogger is responsive to their readers - even if they have thousands of them (of which I - as of yet - probably don't).
I really don't think there are many conservative bloggers out there who are a) writing every day and b) being honest. Though this is a generality, conservative ideology rewards group think while many progressives question authority. It's hard to have a good blog when it's just rabid support. Even though I'm a huge supporter of Deval, I've a) criticized him multiple times (thus proving the fact that I'm not a total tool) and b) I go after dems (even liberal ones, like Sal) on an almost daily basis.
Plus, every blogger needs his niche. People who like crazy rants that are frequently poignant tend to like my blog... LOL.
I tend to agree more with Steven than Mark: while I too can tolerate gay people using the "f" slur, I certainly don't condone it - and have made the point to at least make my feelings known on the subject. However, I wouldn't turn my back to a glbt friend who continued to use it anyway. Generally, when friends I have who occasionally use it, they use it tied into another word - like "fag hag" or "fag out." I still don't support it and I'm not sure they really do either, I just don't think they know a synonym that means the same thing.
In addressing that problem, we have to look at vocabulary and find better words for "fag hag" and the like because, otherwise, they will be used without restraint... and thus make it feel as if "fag" is an okay word to use.
To answer tblade (ask joe anything har har har)
I tried having a conservative blog, but I'm not good at original thinking, I'm a conversationalist. If someone asked me a question or psed to me a problem, I'd be able to blog it up old school, but I suck at just spewing out things.
one of my good friends, and despite being libertarian, a fellow CR, has a blog which he updates with frequency, so if you're really looking for a right-leaning blog that doesn't suck, try
http://prospectsforliberty.blogspot.com/
sorry to but in, ryan
Question - Why should people listen to something you have to say about politics and government if you have no real experience with politics and government?
Follow up - What do you want to be when you grow up?
Answer - Because, um, they like what I have to say? I've never claimed to be a know-all, end-all source of information. I present facts and form opinions around those facts. People are free to use their brains and come up with their own conclusions. I'd say the same thing if I were a professional earning a three figure salary giving out the same advice.
As for what I want to do "when I grow up," I don't really know. I'll be writing in some capacity, because I have a calling to do it. I may join some campaigns and see where that goes, I may join Corporate America to earn a living, I may go back to law school in a few years... and, eventually, I'd like to run for some sort of local office and make a difference.
Further Follow-up
When you get hostile questions, do you prefer that the hostility be veiled or overt?
-KBusch
Sometimes he presents "facts" which are actually opinions, but in general I read this blog because Ryan presents an honesty of opinion and takes a respectful sense of opposition to the powers that be. I find little time to even read many blogs, can't imagine having to write all this stuff.
Oh, I enjoy both, KBusch.
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