Built on a shared foundation of feeling different, and
facing some sort of discrimination, why do we feel the need to constantly cut
each other down? I have encountered many different types of gay men. No one is
exactly the same, and within our broad general gay community there are
subcultures, just like inside any other large community. However, what boggles
my mind is that there seems to be some sort of hierarchy within the gay
community, or at least a never-ending amount of cliques. You know, those things
that existed in high school. Why are we so competitive as a community?
Perhaps it is caused by our shared marginalization from the mainstream community. We know that we're all different, so some of try to justify this by judging and then distancing ourselves from others. We look at our brothers and say to ourselves: "I'm not like that." or "I'm not that flamboyant." It is a way of assuring ourselves that we're almost "normal" enough as to be a part of our broader, general society.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't right and truthfully, the only one's that we are really deceiving are ourselves. We tend to think of anything outside the norm as abnormal when, in reality, none of us are truly normal. We're all human and therefore unique.
Much love and many naked hugs!