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| i wish i could agree | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 11:27 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 11:14 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Randy Rainbow’s old, racist, and transphobic tweets resurface - BruceinIthaca 08:51 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
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| I went into reading these resurfaced tweets with the same assumption, that in the gay community "tranny" was thrown around in an "it's our word" kind of way (even though it isn't and wasn't "our" word, I acknowledge it still was treated that way). But I found it to be overused beyond that defense, and totally unnecessary, and misused. I also don't think that using "RuPaul used it" is a good justification for someone like Randy... RuPaul was, at the time, a 50 year old black drag queen super star who grew up in the club and ball and drag scenes, and who's life is live bending gender (and was surely called a "tranny" countless times before Randy was even born, not to mention knowing and working with countless trans women in his life by 2010), while Randy was a young white gender-conforming gay guy. His life, experience, career, and community do not compare to Ru's in terms of empowering him to casually throw that word around, let alone on twitter. I think a better equivalent would have been Christian Siriano saying "hot tranny mess" on TV all the time back in 2007, before the Randy tweets. But to give you a sense of the time... Siriano publicly apologized for using that phrase afterwards... in 2008. 2 years before these tweets supposedly represented what was "common and okay then". Siriano was 22 when he was on the show saying it and 23 when he apologized ... Randy was almost 30 when he tweeted these. But what I thought was more indefensible was the racial nature of the tweets. That was worse than I expected. Not because he used the "n word" or any outright racism or anything, but the casual indifference and mocking... it really doesn't look good even for way way back in the long ago of 2010. I don't know what his career or audience was then, if he had any to speak of. Many comedy people on twitter start by taking on a bit of a character in their tweets, like a "wouldn't it be funny or crazy is someone said this, i'll tweet that"... also when you have no audience you don't think about how it will be read or taken. That doesn't make it okay. It's definitely true that what was seen as "inappropriate" was not the same then as now, so it does deserve context, but it also isn't just fully defendable as totally cool then. I'm not weighing in on whether or not to "cancel" him, he hasn't even made a statement. But I don't think they are worth defending outside of "in the context of the time they aren't as bad as they read now", which doesn't mean they weren't offensive or at least a bit gross and tone deaf even then. I don't think he needs to be cancelled, but he does need to be accountable, and I hope he makes a thoughtful apology soon. |
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| re: i wish i could agree | |
| Posted by: wearenow 04:14 am EDT 08/19/20 | |
| In reply to: i wish i could agree - Chazwaza 11:14 pm EDT 08/18/20 | |
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| please. anyone who was a 'tranny' then didn't care, and anyone who's not a 'tranny' now shouldn't waste their little minds making a deal out of this . |
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