 Rachel Cook considers the dumbing down of gay men.
When I was 18, there was a small second-hand
car dealer on Nicholson Street,
Fitzroy. For sale was an over-priced, custom-made, red convertible 1969 Volkswagen
Fastback and I loved it. I imagined all kinds of scenarios with this car. I had
our whole life together mapped out and so on this particular day I set out to
go and get it.
The car yard owner, an overweight man in
his 60s, said he was prepared to make me a deal. He said he could take a
‘whopping’ $500 bucks off just like that; but there was a catch. I would have
to ‘pose’ on the car bonnet for his new calendar. Now, I’d imagined all kinds
of scenarios with this car, but not this one.
I was reminded of this story when recently
a gay friend said he was “so sick and tired of seeing pictures of naked men in
ads”.
He said he was affronted by the fact that
it doesn’t matter whether advertisers are selling condoms, sports drinks or
chewing gum to the gay market: it’s always accompanied by a shirtless man, as
if that’s the only thing that will ever spark the attention of the gay male. He
was, he said, a little aggravated about being consistently ‘dumbed down’ to.
And it seems true. I once saw an ad in San Francisco for a
therapist specializing in ‘couples counseling’ and it featured a semi nude ‘Muscle
Mary’. Another ad for water, yes water, came with not one but two nude men.
We’re all aware of the fact that nudity is
used to sell anything, but in the gay male world, it seems naked men are used
to sell everything.
Flogging band-aids? Better get a naked man.
Pushing tea-towels? What about a naked man?
It’s funny in a kitsch sort of way, but
really, what is it saying about the way the world views gay male culture?
Even though studies have been carried out
on the brains of gay men, it seems the only conclusion advertisers have come to
is that they have them; the verdict is out on whether they can actually use them. Maybe they don’t.
There’s a theory that if you treat someone
like an idiot for long enough they become one. Are we creating a whole
generation of dumb gay men?
Many gay men may think they’ve come a long
way from the stereotypical hunk of muscle who knows more about a protein-rich
diet than the work of Foucault, but have they? Maybe only in their own
undervalued mind.
It’s hard for a lesbian to imagine being
targeted in this way. The mainstream may consider us ugly, but never dumb.
In fact, I have a gay travel book which
pictorially depicts lesbians at art galleries, restaurants and places of
historical interest, but the boys are always beachside, resplendent in their Speedos.
I asked a few of my man-loving male friends
if they thought they were often dumbed down to by advertisers. Their response
was that they did, but at the same time, they also say they’re used to it. I
asked one friend if he’d ever considered doing anything about it, and his
response was one big, audible sigh.
Was that was the sound of grey matter
decaying, I wonder?
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