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Borat goes gay and it's not appreciated

The British comedian who made the character Borat famous, has now turned himself into Bruno, a flamboyant homosexual fashion journalist from Austria. And all is not good with this.
[His character] is supposed to send-up the ignorance and intolerance of real-life individuals he meets during a filmed journey across the US. However, he has instead been accused of promoting gay stereotypes.


Surely not!
Several liberal groups claimed this week that Bruno's behaviour and image - he has bleached hair, wears copious amounts of make-up, and appears to strip-wax his legs, buttocks and chest - will actually end up promoting rather than undermining homophobia. "Some people in our community may like this movie, but many are not going to be OK with it," was the stern prediction of Rashad Robinson, of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. "Sacha Baron Cohen's well-meaning attempt at satire is problematic in many places and outright offensive in others."

Ms Robinson is particularly troubled by a scene in which Bruno appears on a TV chat-show brandishing an adopted child dressed in a T-shirt with the logo "gay-by." He boasts to the seemingly-conservative studio audience that the infant is proving a highly-effective "man magnet". Also near the knuckle are scenes in which Baron Cohen's character attempts to seduce the former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul (who storms out of the room muttering about "queers") and takes lessons in how to fight off predatory homosexuals from a martial arts instructor.


I can see why gay activists are troubled. In recent years the strategy has been normalisation - the homosexual is just like everyone else, he/she falls in love, wants to raise a family, wants recognition of important relationships. Anyone that doesn't agree is being discriminatory against a minority who just want to be left alone to live their fairly normal lives.

And along comes Sasha Cohen, who brings out of the closet and onto the big screen some really objectionable behaviour that is best not brought into the public gaze. Behaviour that may revolt Joe Normal and make him wonder if he should be worried about his kids being taught that gays are just like you and me at school. And with the recent vote in California affirming that the public are more on the side of marriage being between a man and a woman, anything that may push the public more into that camp is worrying in the extreme. Sasha Cohen may setting gay activism back by ten years or so.

Related Link: Gay lobby doesn't get the Bruno joke ~ NZ Herald

Comments

  1. Personally, I think he's trying to achieve the same goals as Andy Kaufman, by exposing real reactions, demonstrating what an anally retentive bunch we all are. everyone has a button and Cohen is really good at pushing them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, you're right. Even so, some battles are just unexpected and I think Cohen's just fallen into one of them.

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