I've become addicted to GraphJam, where people make jokes via graphs and charts.
For example:
They are funny because they are true:
My all-time favorite:
Monday, November 16, 2009
Charting the jokes
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7 comments:
When I was young, gays were in the closet. Being exposed as a gay person ruined their careers and often their lives. Being called gay (or another word, you know what it is) was tantamount to threatening death. There were no public figures that would condone homosexuality or homosexuals in any way.
I wonder what happened to change attitudes (or at least perceptions of attitudes) so much, and in such a short time. I can't think of any other issue where something went from being so absolutely shunned to almost accepted, in such a short time.
Rent the movie "Milk" -- it posits that it was when people starting coming out of the closet that people were forced to choose between prejudice and their actual relationships. Some still chose prejudice, but enough chose relationship that the cultural tide started turning.
But I wouldn't say this is the only thing. Look at how casual racism was in the 60s and how it is now less socially acceptable than homophobia. I think new generations of people are able to see things differently. Often that's good, sometimes not
I saw Milk. Interesting movie. But I see a fundamental difference between the civil rights movement of the 60's and the gay rights movement(of when? 80's, 90's, 00's?): The source of people's racial biases are not supported by the Bible, while those against gays are, to a degree. And since this is such a puritanical nation, it seemed much more inevitable that the rights of those of color would come along much earlier than those of gays, and they have, again, to a degree.
It is the fundamental shift in a basically puritanical soceity, that would even consider allowing "gay rights" onto ballots, let alone granting them by any kind of majority, that has me rather perplexed. Something seems incongruent here.
I work with an older man that has a daughter and son that turned out to be gay in their adult life. He has explained that he had to accept that. He was homophobic most if his life. I found that interesting, how he came to terms with that. Being that they are his children, I believe, allowed for an easier transition to find acceptance and tolerant understanding for himself. However, he remains a white racist. I have had a couple of interesting discussions regarding his racism vs his change of heart to homophobia. He knows that I have many very close black friends and musicians that I work with frequently. He will not accept the reasoning that his racism is no different than his previous intolerant contempt of homosexuality. That it is merely a state of mind. If his children were black or half black, he would most likely have the same outcome of tolerance of race that he has had for his gay children. So strange how selective people are with their reasonings. Religion can distort the mind as well.
Brownie, LOTS of things have undergone that dramatic of an attitude change in our culture.
One example: cigarettes. In the 70s it was considered rude to ask someone NOT to smoke in your house. Not it's considered rude to light up without asking.
Other examples: divorce, vegetarianism, big cars, seat belts, fear of pedophilia, etc.
Attitudes change. Dramatically. From generation to generation. That's not new.
Hilarious charts!
I suppose you're right, Tim. Nothing stays the same. Except that things must change.
Gay rights as we know it today started most visibly in the 1960s. Books on my bookshelf: "Dancing the Gay Lib Blues: A year in the homosexual liberation movement," by Arthur Bell; "On Being Different: What it means to be a homosexual," by Merle Miller. I bought them in hardback when they came out no pun intended in 1971 for $4.50 and $5.95. Things change, including the cost of hardcover books. Racism also can have a Biblical basis: my father told me in the early 60s that he thought blacks were destined to suffer, because they were the sons of Ham. I'm pretty sure he still thinks that, as well as thinking interracial marriage is wrong. As for anti-gay attitudes, my most recent theory is that people experience their own sexuality with such physical conviction, that they presume that people with different sexual attractions must be perverted or capable of changing to the "right" way of feeling, and the misunderstood Bible verses just back up their "gut" feelings. And it works both ways. A lot of gay people absolutely cannot comprehend heterosexual attraction and are disgusted by the thought.
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