Now that the serious business is out of the way, I confess myself to be pretty much totally ignorant of all aspects of gay life in Ireland today. So I can only go on what gets presented through the media/popular culture.
So what is your typical bemused country yokel, of which I am one, to make of stuff like the following - now before this kicks off this is meant to be light & fun, & I know you cant generalise about a diverse group of people & most gay people are indistinguishable in all respects from everyone else & some of this stuff has probably been used in homophobia & & & (hopefully that's enough clarifications, qualifications & what not so we can all learn something ),
so again what are the yokels among us meant to make of:
Mincing - which I take it an unusual style of walking - I know this from watching Alan Carr. What up with that?
Drag Acts - the whole Rory O'Neill/panty bliss thing - is it just for the craic?, does he want to be a woman?, is the drag act the exclusive preserve of gay men (I cant recall seeing a drag act of woman being man).
Camp/campness - is this a word for 'theatrically gay' appearing men or situations, or if not then what is the sense of it?
Styles of speaking - probably the same question as the camp one - so why, in many films, do the gay character(s) speak in such a distinguishable manner - is this just for film or how widespread is this phenomenon.
Apparent separate "roles" in lesbian relationships - I wont use the terms as I gather they can be offensive, but you know what I mean. Again, is this occasional, the rule, only for films watched by mass audiences.
Anyways, you can see my level of toe curling cringe inducing ignorance, and without embarassing myself further, can anyone ...errr..."set me straight" on these and other such related matters. There's definitely a book on this topic, with an Irish flavour, a stocking filler for suspected No voters and Yes voters like myself who didnt need to know anything beyond equality for all/cherish all our children equally.
So what is your typical bemused country yokel, of which I am one, to make of stuff like the following - now before this kicks off this is meant to be light & fun, & I know you cant generalise about a diverse group of people & most gay people are indistinguishable in all respects from everyone else & some of this stuff has probably been used in homophobia & & & (hopefully that's enough clarifications, qualifications & what not so we can all learn something ),
so again what are the yokels among us meant to make of:
Mincing - which I take it an unusual style of walking - I know this from watching Alan Carr. What up with that?
Drag Acts - the whole Rory O'Neill/panty bliss thing - is it just for the craic?, does he want to be a woman?, is the drag act the exclusive preserve of gay men (I cant recall seeing a drag act of woman being man).
Camp/campness - is this a word for 'theatrically gay' appearing men or situations, or if not then what is the sense of it?
Styles of speaking - probably the same question as the camp one - so why, in many films, do the gay character(s) speak in such a distinguishable manner - is this just for film or how widespread is this phenomenon.
Apparent separate "roles" in lesbian relationships - I wont use the terms as I gather they can be offensive, but you know what I mean. Again, is this occasional, the rule, only for films watched by mass audiences.
Anyways, you can see my level of toe curling cringe inducing ignorance, and without embarassing myself further, can anyone ...errr..."set me straight" on these and other such related matters. There's definitely a book on this topic, with an Irish flavour, a stocking filler for suspected No voters and Yes voters like myself who didnt need to know anything beyond equality for all/cherish all our children equally.