tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34249799.post8255557945464403553..comments2024-03-29T16:58:01.576+13:00Comments on AmeriNZ Blog: Arthur Answers, Part One: Who knew?Arthur Schenckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568299067544221996noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34249799.post-46998297899348006952015-07-21T23:16:58.977+12:002015-07-21T23:16:58.977+12:00Remember too, Arthur, the context of the times. W...Remember too, Arthur, the context of the times. We are of a similar vintage, growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. What had just finished happening in the US, during that time...?<br /><br />YUP. The McCarthy Era -- during which time it was highly prejudicial to one's career to be unconventional or deemed "Un-American" in any sense of that word. The mood of the times was such that McCarthy-style witch-hunts could easily recur, given the right circumstances. People would have been walking on eggshells, because many careers and lives were wrecked by the McCarthy hearings.<br /><br />(Purely by coincidence, McCarthy was right: Hollywood *was* thoroughly infiltrated by communists at the time. But that was beside the point. The End seldom justifies The Means, Utilitarian Ethics notwithstanding.)<br /><br />And who was the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation? YUP -- J Edgar Hoover (himself a closet homosexualist), a thoroughly nasty piece of work who kept files on all sorts of people he considered to be undesirables and subversives -- whether they had committed any actual crimes or not.<br /><br />People actually do forget the context of the times, and think that life today is like it was back then. America back then bears very little resemblance to America today. Look at all the HUGE social movements that have swept thru during our lifetimes.<br /><br />McCarthy and Hoover's malevolent influences would have had a dampening effect on anybody "coming out of the closet" back then, Arthur. That is why we never heard about them. The cost was way too hi, and the recency of these events too fresh in people's minds.DaChieftainnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34249799.post-62317494886343272042015-07-17T07:34:58.285+12:002015-07-17T07:34:58.285+12:00Sandra - here's a comparable: when I was growi...Sandra - here's a comparable: when I was growing up, our family always noted all the black folks on TV, Greg Morris in Mission: Impossible, Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek, Gail Fisher in Mannix and especially Bill Cosby in I Spy and Diahann Carroll in Julia, because there just weren't that many of "us" out there.rogerogreennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34249799.post-50418865562203543262015-07-16T21:06:42.177+12:002015-07-16T21:06:42.177+12:00It was the times…It was the times…Arthur Schenck (AmeriNZ)http://amerinz.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34249799.post-80904929230271748122015-07-16T21:06:25.733+12:002015-07-16T21:06:25.733+12:00It wasn't about liking them as a performer or ...It wasn't about liking them as a performer or not, but just about seeing my life and my reality reflected. As a kid, and later, as a closeted teen, I longed to see positive images that I could relate to, and there were none. While I was a pretty strong and resilient kid, it would have been enormously helpful to have such positive images.<br /><br />When there started to be openly gay performers of various sorts, I went through a period where I liked them a little bit more because they were gay—I revelled in finally seeing my reality reflected. But that was about people I knew were gay, not ones I wished were.<br /><br />There was another category of performers I might wish to be gay, and those were the guys I fancied when I was growing up. But that had nothing to do with liking them as a performer, and everything to do with just plain old fancying them.Arthur Schenck (AmeriNZ)http://amerinz.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34249799.post-37732436593080105192015-07-16T17:28:28.418+12:002015-07-16T17:28:28.418+12:00Why did you 'wish' some performers were ga...Why did you 'wish' some performers were gay? Not meaning to be confrontational, but what does a performer's (or anyone else for that matter) sexual orientation matter to whether you like what they do/sing etc?Sandra Newtonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34249799.post-78272481232964804982015-07-15T22:06:51.876+12:002015-07-15T22:06:51.876+12:00I just happened to catch this Behind the Music thi...I just happened to catch this Behind the Music thing with Hall & Oates, who were glammed up by this French cover artist, and they went with it.rogerogreennoreply@blogger.com