God knows I'm always happy to see The Gays flex their muscles. Nevertheless, I have mixed feelings about this week's uproar causing B&N.com to remove cartoonist Joe King's tacky humor calendar I'm Not Gay, I'm Just a Sissy. (UPDATE: Amazon continues to sell it. also has removed it.) The product is ignorant, unfunny, in bad taste, and steeped in tired stereotypes about effeminate men. It does not libel, defame, spew false facts, or incite violence. At heart, the problem appears to be the silly and mean-spirited attempts at humor are offensive to some people. We are in for a world of trouble if the criteria for removing a product is that some people say it fails their personal taste test. As with the Hide/Seek debacle, I think the best response against offensive work is to make one's case articulately, and shun it, but not censor it.
Good point.
Posted by: D | December 30, 2011 at 05:40 PM
Agreed. Because if tasteless, offensive (both highly subjective) and stereotyping humor is grounds for censorship, gay men would be in a heap of trouble. Every gay male neighborhood would have to be shut down; every gay male publication and most low-budget gay male movies would be hauled before the courts.
Posted by: Duncan | December 31, 2011 at 07:02 AM
As usual, sir, you are right on the money.
Posted by: digbydolben | December 31, 2011 at 08:41 AM
The calendar has not been censored (no change or editing to it's offensive content). There was a market protest against it being sold in the public market. Good. I'm glad this happened like this. Did you want a calendar using the "n" word etc?
Posted by: karen in kalifornia | December 31, 2011 at 11:49 AM
Yes, I do. (Do you have any idea how much hip-hop music available on Amazon contains the "n-word", just for starters?) Would you want Amazon to remove GLBTQ material if people complained about "it's offensive content"?
If you want to appeal to the "public market," remember that the appropriate free-market response to "offensive" material is not to buy it, not to demand that it not be sold. This calendar is, yes, tacky, stereotyped, and unimaginative. I'm not offended by it, though. But as I already wrote, if people are entitled to demand that material that offends them not be sold, then I've got a long list of gay male and lesbian material that offends me far more than this calendar does. And while I'm on the subject, your comment offends me. I demand that it be removed! That's a market protest!
Posted by: Duncan | December 31, 2011 at 02:29 PM
Censorship is un-American.
Posted by: Dean Van de Motter | January 02, 2012 at 06:29 AM