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Newsflash: C.J. misses the point

by Emily Blann

This wespeak is directed at CJ MacDonald, who wrote a Wespeak in the November 9 issue about what he considers everyone’s feelings to be about the Queerleaders.

Instead of assuming that everyone agrees with you, speak for yourself. Statements like: “The gay community at Wesleyan makes every attempt to let everyone (students, faculty, parents, prospective students) aware of their sexual preference. Why? I have no clue. Nobody cares! Shut the fuck up. Keep it to yourself,” and “the disgusting behavior of these individuals has stained just about everyone’s remembrances of homecoming weekend,” are not only unnecessarily aggressive, but they are also incorrect. Newsflash, CJ: lots of us do care and have not had our remembrances stained in the least. In fact, the tendency of people on this campus not to shut the fuck up is one of the main reasons I came here. I’ve spoken to a lot of people who say that they were drawn to Wesleyan because all sorts of groups on campus (some more controversial than others) can do and say what they want in a relatively unrestricted environment. Your conclusion that such activities “turn off top prospective students” is flawed and only reflects your own discomfort with people’s lifestyles that happen to differ from your own.

It’s obvious that YOU don’t care, but you should leave it at that. If you’re dismissing what I have to say because you think I’m just another QA member whining like a baby (as you put it), it would interest you to know that I’m not a lesbian or a member of QA. You also seem to think that Wesleyan is the only place where such “vulgar” displays are permitted. The heterosexually oriented cheerleading that we see at most sporting events, as well as innumerable examples of our culture defaulting to straightness in entertainment and everyday life, are equally sexually provocative, but nobody seems to care since they’re “normal.” If the Queerleaders made you uncomfortable, but pro cheerleaders don’t, then what’s making you uncomfortable is the very fact that they’re gay, not that they were provocative or vulgar.

You certainly wouldn’t be the first to say that homosexuality makes you uncomfortable; some of the chalkings I’ve seen make me uncomfortable too, but from what I understand, that’s the point. If you feel uncomfortable when you are confronted by these things, then you should think about why that is. After all, what right do we have to feel comfortable all the time while equally vulgar displays of heterosexuality are all over the place causing much more frequent discomfort to gay people? (If I’m wrong, that making people think about their reasons for feeling uncomfortable is one of the objectives of the chalkings, I would welcome being corrected by QA. That’s how it’s been explained to me.) To say that you don’t care what people do as long as you don’t have to see it is unacceptable, and it reflects a disturbingly common double standard.

I also found your derogatory approach to the whole issue disgusting, and I wonder what your goal is in wording your Wespeak the way you did. For anyone who didn’t read it, CJ’s Wespeak also includes comments like “Go ahead and waste your time chalking and protesting for stupid rights,” and “You are a disgrace. You should be embarrassed and I feel sorry for your parents and families. Are you ever going to grow up?” This has nothing to do with sexual preference. I do not agree with the lifestyle choice that these supposed ‘women’ have made, but I do respect their right to make that choice.” I could spend pages writing about why rights aren’t stupid, why they shouldn’t be embarrassed, and why being gay isn’t a “lifestyle choice,” but that’s not the point right now. The point is that by being so obnoxious, you detract any respectability from whatever reasonable points you may have had. How do you expect anyone to respect what you have to say when you resort to using derogatory insults and name-calling? Although you claim to respect their “choice”, it’s clear that you have absolutely no respect for much of anything.

If you admire Williams and Amherst so much for their lack of happenings like this, then you should have gone there instead of coming to a place like Wesleyan and then expecting to be comfortable all the time.

Blann is a member of the class of 2004