how very... special

[rivendellrose]

Dear Sir Elton John:

So, you've decided to lose it, then? It's great that you consider yourself the socially acceptable face of homosexuality... but those of us who prefer homosexuality to not have really horrible PR are now backing away from you very slowly, looking at each other and wondering exactly when you lost the last few marbles you had.

Way to throw oil on the fire, man. Has the Religious Right sent you a Thank You card yet? If so, please donate the enclosed big fat check to AIDS research, or the ACLU. They'll need it.

I am praying that this is a misquote, but so far that's the only reference that I've found. Alas.

Edit: I stand corrected on a few matters. This is, as I told theladyfeylene, the curse of not having been all that media-aware while I was in college... now that I read newspapers and such I tend to not have the long-distance context that others do on various subjects. Particularly celebrities. :P I still am somewhat irked by the need some people feel to poke at the Religious Right when, by all rights, it'd be better to not encourage their insane paranoia and oppression complexes, but hey - everybody's got their own way of dealing with things, I suppose. And I do appreciate a celebrity who speaks his/her mind whether or not it's politically saavy... that's just tempered by my own nervousness when people say potentially inflammatory things that I consider dangerous to my own pet causes.

So, long story short... I'm calling off the gripe-fest, but leaving this up so that I'm not accused of being a deleting-type whiner. ;)

Comments

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

And the thing is... he does have some damn valid points in there.

A part of me is hoping he's being crazy and extremist so to point out how crazy half of what the religious crazies come out with against homosexuality sounds - ie, how it should be outlawed, how it promotes hatred and intolerance of heterosexual couples, etc etc. And knowing Elton John and how he does things, I wouldn't be surprised if that was what it is. But without further context....

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Exactly. On some levels I agree with him, particularly if he's doing it to make the kind of point you indicate, which makes perfect sense. But with the way our media works, that's not going to be the way people take it. *Sighs*

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

No, it isn't going to be the way some people take it, but it's really not going to effect anyone but Elton John himself. At worst, he'll be toted out as 'see! The gays are evil!' with which he can reply 'yeah, all that stuff? I totally just said everything you guys say, but put in 'religion' instead of 'homosexuality'. And then he'll go ride his emu and drink the last bottle of some rare thousand year old wine and play emu-polo with gold plated mallets.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

*Snickers* True enough. Especially the emu-polo. *g*

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

I'd pay to play emu-polo with Elton John.

Seriously though, all joking aside, Elton John is pretty much untouchable at this point. He's slet loose a lot of other tongue-in-cheek shock statements - not regarding homosexuality and religion - over the past two decades and has put himself in a position of not only media but quasi-political power that allows him to be able to say these things without too much backlash on whatever community he's defending. He has a lot of friends in high places and he's got his fingers in a lot of pies.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That's good - this is the curse of my have been only marginally aware of the media while I was in college. Now that I read the newspapers and such every day, I tend to lack the more long-distance context that other people have. :P

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Elton John has become known as someone who puts himself out there and is very vocal and not always conventionally so. And he gets away with it. Which, I personally think is a good thing. For the most part (though not always) he uses his powers for good. ;)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Hey, if they get away with it, that's all I ask. Gods know I love to see celebrities say whatever they damned well please, as long as it doesn't backfire.

...Or make them look like a total moron, a la some very well-known actors of the moment. *Sighs*

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

Seems like he's saying "ban religion" to counterpoint the way that religious nuts say "ban homosexuality." I also agree that just because the religious right gets away with that sort of rhetoric we shouldn't stoop to the same thing, but honestly, it kind of makes me glee a bit inside when someone actually calls for banning organized religion in public. Not because I want organized religion banned, but because I like it when people call people on their BS. It's not constructive, but it's fun.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

It's not constructive, but it's fun.

It is, unless it ends up playing into the their hands. They've been accusing "us" (liberals, minority religions, people for gay marriage, etc) of wanting to make Christianity illegal for the longest time... and here goes a very very very public gay man saying exactly that? I have fear of how this will fall out.

[arcane.livejournal.com]

The only person this would have a negative effect on is Elton John himself. And I think he's too old and gay to care.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I hope you're right. Not that I want it to reflect badly on him, either, but the whole position is so tenuous right now...

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sometimes us up in our ivory towers forget that people do get really afraid of The Man wanting to take their religion away. They see as much clear evidence of that as we do of The Man wanting to take our rights away and put us in interment camps and torture us for no reason.

It's not right to say things that feed that fear, but it's also really frustrating that they can say loony things like "all liberals are traitors and should be put in camps" and get away with it.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, that's something that, for me as a member of a veeeeery minority religious group, I could never forget. I just level it at the opposite camp than 'they' do. ;)

Yup. And still get away with thinking they're the oppressed minority, too. That just boggles my mind.

[arcane.livejournal.com]

I don't get the feeling that he's saying any of it that seriously. To me, it has the same sort of tongue-in-cheek rhetoric one would use with friends.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

It's less that I think he's serious, and more that I think certain camps are going to take him as serious and run with it. It's playing into the fears of the Religious Right and their ilk, and that seems like a dangerous position to take at this time.

Or I could just be paranoid and over-sensitive. That happens a lot. ;)

[tejolote.livejournal.com]

So he would personally like to ban religion. That's not so weird. Think about all the things that you would do if you were king. Things that would not necessarily make the world a more comfortable place for *everyone*. His quote didn't sound at all crazy.

It's great that you consider yourself the socially acceptable face of homosexuality...

What? Where did that come from?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

What? Where did that come from?

Paraphrase of a quote in the article, actually, unless I misread something.

And you're right, of course, that people say all kinds of things that they wish would happen. I was simply worried about the kind of backlash this might cause. It seems to me that in a tense climate, one should perhaps concentrate on building bridges rather than making statements that will upset more people. But, as many have pointed out, I'm probably just overreacting.

[kjog.livejournal.com]

As a religious person myself, I still think the righties need to get poked around by some big names, just to keep them on their toes. It's good for them. ;)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Exactly. We lefties perform a vital function similart to Zen Buddhism for these guys - we make sure they don't get complacent. ;)