Thursday, June 19, 2014

¿ARE BLACK GAY MEN ONE-DIMENSIONAL?

MUSED Magazine Online has run the gamut of topics since its inception.

We’ve covered dating. We’ve coveredrelationships. We’ve covered pop culture. We’ve covered positions.
And, no, I’m not referring to the positions you’ve learned in yoga class.

I’m talking about thosepositions. You know, the two positions that rhyme with “mop” and “shot ‘em.”

I know, I know, that was corny as hell. Sue me.

Anyhow, my goal—as a staff writer for MUSED—is to elicit some type of reaction from our readers. Whether that comes in the form of laughter, follow up questions or criticism matters not.  Admittedly, though, it gets kind of hard to review the same subject matters week in and week out, through slightly different lenses.
In other words, shit gets old after a while.

Which got me to thinking: why should I ever have a tough time coming up with engaging topics? Surely, there are a host of things going on in the world worthy of commentary.
Let’s review.

The last few weeks in politics have been nothing short of topsy-turvy. The government shutdown led to the furloughing of thousands of government workers. Republicans flirted with breaching the debt ceiling, which would have wreaked economic havoc across the world. Oh, and how could we forget the abysmal launch of healthcare.gov (i.e., the Obamacare exchange website), whose slow, glitch-ridden GUI evoked the days of browsing the net via a dial-up connection?

News all around!

Over in the world of athletics, it’s a sportsman paradise right now. The NCAA released its first round of Bowl College Series (BCS) football rankings a couple weekends ago, the NFL contenders are starting to manifest, and the World Series is in full swing. Pun intended.

The world is our oyster, right?

Wrong.

Indeed, had I chosen any of the aforementioned topics as a feature, they would have received tepid reception, at best. Rather, had I decided to wage a debate about whether oral sex is in fact “sex,” I’m sure the views, comments and Facebook shares would have mounted.

Moreover, had I decided to broach the Chris Brown brawl that took place in Washington, D.C. over the weekend, I’m certain that there would have been robust discussions taking place in the comment area.

On the other hand, had I decided to write about the Affordable Care Act and how a majority of states opted out of the Medicaid expansion that would have helped to insure millions of low-income families, the comment section would have been as bare as Ciara’s Grammy cupboard.

Or so I think.

Am I being overly cynical? Perhaps I’m simply making hasty generalizations about my brown cohorts, when I should be giving them the benefit of the doubt. Certainly we must—as a collective community—care about more than just how hit NeNe’s hair is, if self-proclaimed versatile men are just closeted bottoms, or how Future popped the question to Ciara, right?

To my dismay, scanning my Twitter timeline only gives credence to my sweeping assessment of our community.

Now for full disclosure, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being abreast of any of the topics I just mentioned; we all need some levity in our lives. And let’s face it—there isn’t much gratification to be found in watching Congress practically self-implode every other week. Be that as it may, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t broaden our scope with regard to the things we consume.
I definitely think there are substantive discussions to be had regarding dating in the gay community (let’s face it, our straight counterparts just don’t understand our struggle!), coming out over and over and over and over and over and over again (times infinity!), or grappling with sexual compatibility when it comes to our partner.

As the ole folks say, “If it ain’t one thing, it’s another.”
Nevertheless, there’s still a fine line between healthy discussion and talking about a topic ad nauseam. And oftentimes, I think we teeter toward the latter.

Remember, there’s a whole world out there that doesn’t have to do with sex, dating or Beyoncé.  Granted, that world may be boring as hell, but it still exists.


So how about we explore it together?

SOURCE: MUSED MAG

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