Cheers for the best comments of the day! Jeers for the worst comment of the day!
Best Comment Of The Day, in response to Plume With A View: “They’re Down Under but there’s nothing down under their dresses.” • Best Comment of The Day, in response to Elephant & Castle: “Psychedelephant.” • Best Comment Of The Day, in response to World’s Biggest Beaver Dam Is Visible From Space: “I wish I had a beaver that could build its own barrier methods. Mine just tends to snatch the nearest log and play recklessly.” And! “Leave it to Jezebel to publish an article featuring super productive beavers.” And! “Something built by an animal with a name that doubles as an anatomical euphemism can be viewed from space? Why don’t we call this The Great Wall Of Vagina?” • Best Comment Of The Day, in response to 5 Reasons Why Chely Wright’s Coming Out Matters:
I’ve been thinking about this since yesterday. Jez commenters are the decidedly left-end of generally straight internet commenters. If their responses include a big core of: it’s so sad that this is a big deal, gays only come out for attention & money, and yay, it’s not my masturbation-aid-boyfriend, then we have a good measure of why people in entertainment are asked, cajoled, and forced into the closet, and why they are fearful of coming out.
Every time someone in entertainment says they want to come out, there are agents and execs who can say, “Hey look at TMZ, look at the commenters at People, hey, even the feminazi’s over at Jezebel don’t want to lose their imaginary boyfriend. Those are your fans Quinto, they won’t be able to relate, so maybe not yet, you know? People aren’t ready. And you know, there’s the backlash when you do come out, look at TMZ and Jezebel, people will think you are doing it for attention, just wait, it’s not killing you.”
And:
Thank you for this. This is everything that I couldn’t articulate about why it mattered.
I have no idea who Chely Wright is. I knew her song “Single White Female” because I think I had to tap-dance to it one year. But other people know who she is. You don’t have a number-one song and have no one know you in your industry.
I do not feel safe coming out where I live. No one I know in this city, save for one person who isn’t from here, is openly out of the closet. And with him, I was shocked and made the mistake of thinking he wanted to be closeted. Whoops. He understood once I explained that we… just don’t come out here. We don’t feel safe, or it’s an open secret. But that’s still not open, is it? Hate crimes are very real and very frightening.
The more visible gay people there are, especially in more “untraditional” professions, the safer the world will become. As said in the article, it’s not that people who listen to country music=gay bashers. It’s demographics. People who are “fine” with gays, “as long as they don’t shove it in my face” start to understand what that statement means, and that simply being visible with a partner isn’t shoving it in anyone face – it’s the same thing any heterosexual couple is awarded – why not a gay couple?
It might not always seem so important, especially if you’re straight, because you’ve never personally had to deal with navigating your own coming out. Maybe it doesn’t personally matter to you. That’s all right. But it matters to me, because one day, I might actually really come out of the closet. One day, I might feel like it’s all right to openly be who I am. It’s not right now, but people like Wright are tapping into people that I’ll never know, but that I’m afraid of anyway. This matters, even if it doesn’t personally affect you.
• Worst Comment Of The Day, in response to 5 Reasons Why Chely Wright’s Coming Out Matters: “She’s a has been who is trying to get some publicity. Perhaps she didn’t feel like adopting an African baby.”
Reminder: If you see a great, funny, insightful, eloquent (or awful) comment, nominate it! Email the comment and the timestamp link to the left of the comment to Hortense at [email protected].
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