There are many truisms in life, and one of the main ones is ” You Can Never Judge A Book By It’s Cover.” This came to me while viewing a video which posed to random passers-by the above question “What do straight people think lesbians look like?”
The first thing that came to this writer’s mind is what would my answer be?
I am fortunate to know several gay women, and to have several friends in same-sex relationships and marriages as well. What great fun they are, and I can say they have enriched my personal life with conversation from religion and politics to men’s college basketball. I find them bright and challenging. With that said, I am not so sure I would have picked the pictures right shown in this video.
The focuses of the video were based on the following questions.
- What do Lesbians look like?
- What does a stereotypical Lesbian look like?
- What are three words or phrases that come to mind with regard to what a Lesbian looks like?
Simple minded people need to categorize everything. It’s like nothing is worth any examination.(Brenda Ross Chambers)
The thing that jumps out at you here is the word stereotypical, and, moreover, how and when you actually put these types of views to a litmus test we find how inaccurate they are and in many cases we know how destructive they have been to a growing segment of our society as a whole.
A?stereotype?is a thought that may be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things. (Wikipedia)
There are those who seem to have no curiosities about life other than the ones themselves are indoctrinated into. We are reminded that in our past, and up until this very day, the practice of stereotyping has been the by-product of racism and people grouping themselves up and deciding that others who don’t “fit their bill,” “walk their line,” pray to their God”?be dammed to the out-group.
Devaluing of uniqueness!
We have religious ?zealots for years and years shoving down our collective throats how much being gay and being lesbian is such the abomination. That the uniqueness and clever wit and the expression of love for fellow-man and woman really has been devalued. One could liken it to ” not only are you a brute, you”re a Lesbian brute.”
The really interesting part of the video comes at the end when the surveyor pose the challenge to name three lesbians in the world of entertainment, media, and the lack of people being able to do so was surprising.
The final test poses? to identify a mug shot format picture board, and for the survey taker to pick by appearance alone who they felt was a lesbian. The results were clear: you really can’t judge a book by its cover.
In closing, we all know in reality that there will always be segments of our society that condemn homosexuality on religious grounds, but to implement discriminatory public policy, to restrict personal freedoms of choice, and lastly to fight the power of love is something the old karma button has a way of correcting.
Now, without further ado, for your viewing pleasure, What Straight People Think Lesbians Look Like!
Edited/Published by: SB
