Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Stereo Types

Of the many stereotype traits attributed to gays, one of the most familiar is the one regarding their choice of music. The reason why certain artists are labeled “gay icons” is because they are beloved by most gays everywhere. Music tastes change with time; so do the musical “gay icons.” The gays before swooned over Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli and Dusty Springfield; then it was Cher and Barbra Streisand; now it’s Madonna, Britney Spears, and Kyle Minogue.

Of course, it doesn’t automatically mean that you are gay if you like any or all of the artists mentioned above. Vice versa, I’m sure there are gays who do not believe in Cher, who can get Kyle out of their heads, and who’d find Britney’s music toxic.

Stereotypes can work as a kind of short-hand, a hasty generalization that lends to easy classification, given people’s penchant for pigeon-holing. That’s why when used properly and deliberately, it can work in sitcoms, TV commercials, movies and soap operas. On the flip side, stereotyping can propagate a simplistic view of things and can lead to bigotry, homophobia and bad casting.

So what can one do if he’s straight but grooves to “Into The Groove” and is a slave for “I’m a Slave 4 U”? Or if he’s gay but would rather listen to Led Zeppelin, head-bang to Korn and scream-along to Slapshock?

But really, the more important question is this: So what? Kung type mo yung music eh di type mo, di ba?