Spring brings with it many things. Incessant chirping from our feathered friends, blooming flowers, shortening of skirts, tightening of shirts, and the rise of misplaced outrage. The latter refers to Bruce Thao and Vanessa Fabbre, two SSA Ph.D. students, who expressed their concern over the behavior of some fraternity brothers during Westboro Baptist Church’s hateful protest (“Frat Brothers Should Not Perpetuate Stereotypes,” 4/3/09). Thao and Fabbre were “offended,” “appalled,” and “disappointed” that in response to placards reading “God Hates Fags,” some decided to flamboyantly dance to ABBA. Look, ABBA can be offensive. Like when “Dancing Queen” comes on during a party for the 267th time. Now, that would put me on suicide watch.
Listening to “Dancing Queen” and wearing pink, however, is not exactly the offensive equivalent of wearing blackface to mock a racist protest, as Thao and Fabbre asserted. Or, perhaps I slept through the lecture on the relationship between Swedish pop tunes and the Ku Klux Klan in Political Correctness 101.
Also, when did pink clothing become the sole province of homosexuals? Because I for one have been known to enjoy a fine pair of pink Bermuda shorts and a cold bottle of Miller High Life during a relaxing game of sunrise Bocce.
People get offended by a lot of things and everyone retains the right to do so. However, getting riled up because someone may mock using stereotypes distracts one from the terrifying reality that religious fanatics like WBC possess sincere messages of hate aimed both at the LGBTQ community and society at large. Straight dudes wearing feather boas and ass-less chaps while rhythmically gyrating do not.
Thao and Fabbre’s letter further perpetuated the myth that U of C Ph.D. students are pretentious, humorless pseudo-intellectuals constantly brimming with self-important indignation. But, I suppose some stereotypes are based on fact.
Oliver Mosier
Class of 2008
I agree that wearing pink and dancing to ABBA has many legitimate meanings, depending on context and personal motivation. My reaction to your counter-protest was not an attempt to assert humorless, politically correct, self-indignant criticism. It was an emotional response based on the fact that gay people are far too often mimicked in the way you demonstrated, and I think that is unfortunate and hurtful.
I would ask that you read the addendum to our letter below.
Mockery Comes with a Price
As an addendum to our letter-to-the-editor that criticized the Alpha Delta Phi members for the nature of their anti-WBC protest, we would like make a few points to clarify our position. First, our reaction to their outfits and behavior reflected our ignorance of the historical context generated by the “Straight Thuggin” incident at the university in 2005. Clearly, we did not know instinctively that the fraternity members were attempting to parody the undergraduate students who participated in the party and show that U of C students have learned from their past. In this light, we do find the goal of their protest admirable. Second, we should not have portrayed all of the members of the fraternity as “young and white,” this was an incorrect and unfair generalization and we regret using it. Third, even though the Alpha Delta Phi members were able to mock the stereotype of the homophobic “frat boy,” they did so while perpetuating a hurtful and inaccurate characterization of the gay community. In order for them to make their point and be understood they had to take off their clothes, dance in skimpy shorts and bathrobes, mimic gay male sex, and “act gay” in a way that characterized gay people as hyper-sexualized beings. Unfortunately, in their attempt to make fun of intolerance, they underscored hurtful and degrading images of the gay community. Mockery and parody are powerful forms of communication; while the Alpha Delta Phi protest was effective in promoting tolerance, it simultaneously reinforced a superficial caricature of gay people that blinds us all to the true diversity within this community. Combating this stereotype is something for which we are all responsible.
I’m sure someone will notice the mistyped “self-indignation,” which I suspect makes good comic material for another post. I obviously meant to repeat “self-important indignation.”
On a final note: I wholeheartedly disagree that being offended by “straight dudes wearing feather boas and ass-less chaps while rhythmically gyrating” distracts from efforts to combat groups like the WBC. In fact, I argue that paying more attention to the messages we send in counter-protests will make our efforts more powerful and effective in the long run.
It is admirable that Alpha Delta Phi took a stand against the WBC. My point is that the form of mockery used came with a price, and that is the perpetuation of hyper-sexual stereotypes of gay people that are often used (both consciously and unconsciously) to promote homophobia and discrimination.
Laughter and its present forms represent … the least scrutinized sphere of the
people’s creation.
– Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World. i
ahahaha… I just now read this response article to our article from the Spring. Wow… I guess the most blatant thing in the response is how hard Mosier was trying to defend their offensive acts by saying that we are humorless and “missed the point.” Yea, I guess I forgot to laugh at the stereotypes perpetuated before my eyes. Next time someone slants their eyes and makes a bucktoothed face at me, remind me to find the humor in it. The WBC is a joke and everyone knows that. The only thing is, no one else got Alpha Delta Phi’s “joke.”
“Laughter and its present forms represent … the least scrutinized sphere of the
people’s creation.
– Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World. i” – from vanessa’s comment
Vanessa, did you honestly not read Oliver’s article where he stereotyped you as “pretentious, humorless pseudo-intellectuals constantly brimming with self-important indignation.” That quote didn’t do much to help your case. Just saying