Battleangel

I’m running out of titles for articles here. I wonder why I don’t begin my rants with a descriptive title at least. Oh well.

Here is the situation. I just walked by the TV and realized that the peculiar act that caught my interest was part of the annual “Gay Awards”. Yes really. There really is something by that name, and it IS being broadcasted by Swedish television (SVT2). I wonder if that is what they mean by public service. Don’t know if it is worse than the stuff they usually serve on a saturday night in Sweden though. SVT seems to be suffering from a Bergman impact still. So either it’s the Gay Awards or some cheerful film about suicide or a documentary on prostitution in Moldavia. Either way it’s not uplifting and maybe the alternative is even worse … so … anyway …
Before I begin let me just say this. In recent years I have greatly toned down the “homophobia” of youth. I guess you learn a thing or two as you grow older. My introduction to biology and evolutionary principles in particular also helped my deal with this in a rational a scientific way (strange as it may sound). So my take on this is different than what you could expect … at least I’m not going about it gay-bashing.

Lets get right to the point here. My beef with the “Gay Awards” is this. It is highly questionable to use up prime time for a minority group. Especially if it is a non-essential award ceremony. We’re not talking about starving kids in Ethiopia here.
It is also a well known fact that homosexual activists regularly have been trying to misinform the public about their true numbers. I.e. how much of a minority they really are. For the sake of simplicity we can look at the ratio of “homosexual men in the US” and conclude that the true figure is somewhere in between 2 % (Laumann, et al, The Social Organization of Sex: Sexual Practices in the United States (1994)) and 10 % (Kinsey, Alfred C. et al. (1948). Sexual Behavior in the Human Male). The latter was however biased.
As for women the ratio can be expected to register slightly lower overall. For more interesting figures I suggest you visit the Kinsey Institute.
So, questions are abundant. What kind of parenthetical sideshows can qualify for prime time on a public service network? How many percent of the population must be affected? How do you justify this award ceremony? (because everything else on television has to damn well justify its existence) And furthermore, this particular television network has pledged not to allow personal beliefs or interests to interfere with the common and unbiased platform.
By all definitions this is a small lobby organization that gets to monkey around. And it leaves the field open for other aggressive minorities to appear. Whats next? Latter-day Saints? Scientologists? People with chronic fungi feet infections?

A secondary beef is that homosexual individuals work pretty much like the average guy or gal. Ironically, events like these can help reinforce prejudice and stereotypical views. On the one hand they wish to be like everyone else and on the other they prance about like clowns. A psychological rift that is not particularly difficult to understand.
It’s not unlike the controversy whether Israel is or should be the voice of the world’s collective jewish population. And whether the collective is liking what that voice has to say. A minority in a minority in a minority in … you get the idea I am sure.

I wont deny that I am aversive towards many of the award ceremonies that are being broadcasted these days. So this is not a completely unique case. But it is one of the most trifling audiences and superficial ideas for an award ceremony around.

It’s not politically correct to question any of this of course.

So, in essence, this is much like the “cultural pendulum” that so often return to. People tend to exaggerate and accentuate whatever they are doing and thus instead of ending up in a state of equilibrium they go to extremes. Feeding frenzy. In the end it is bound to hurt their cause and make the pendulum swing back. God, I love corny metaphores.