By Nathan James
Americans like drama. We vicariously enjoy gossip, tension and conflict, and we're prepared to pay for the access to these things. Look on the shelves of any convenience store, and you'll see entire publications devoted to the broadcast of personal information. In many ways, our obsession with the personal lives of others has created the modern celebrity.
We like to think of this kind of behavior as harmless, and it often is. No one is really hurt by media scrutiny of Johnny Depp's relationships, so we think there's nothing wrong with it. But sometimes our media and its proclivities can reflect on our culture, and sometimes what it has to say isn't good. Our country saw an excellent example of this earlier this month, when Anderson Cooper publicly announced that he is gay.
Cooper, a journalist and television anchor with his own show on CNN, has long been the subject of rumors regarding his sexuality. When he announced in a short and precisely worded email that he is, in fact, homosexual, it immediately became a national news item. ABC News, Fox News and even CNN ran stories about Cooper's sexuality.
We should not be proud of this.
Honestly, it's bad enough that there was ever a rumor mill focused on Cooper's orientation. As a journalist, Cooper made a point of not discussing his personal life, citing his desire for privacy and the exploitation of his mother by tabloids. Still, individuals as well as news sources found it necessary to raise discussion and theories regarding the man's lifestyle. Neither Cooper's desire for privacy nor the irrelevance of his orientation were enough to deter individuals and reporters from asking about it.
Worse still is the media's reaction to this revelation. Apparently, Cooper's sexual orientation is not only worth wondering about, it's worth being published across the nation and the globe.
What this shows is not just that our media is obsessed with gossip. It shows that our culture still considers homosexuality a spectacle and an aberration. After all, no one is running stories about Bill O'Reilly's heterosexuality. No one is doggedly pursuing the details of Wolf Blitzer's social life. The media is so concerned with homosexuality because the media see it as bizarre, and this reflects poorly on our news and those who consume it.
I applaud Cooper for his courage in doing what he believes is right, and I don't want anyone to think that I'm condemning his announcement. I'm rather condemning the fact that any announcement was necessary. Cooper is a journalist, and his sole responsibility to the public is to report the news. Most agree that he does this well and that he succeeds in being informative and unbiased. To concern ourselves with the intimate details of his personal life is more than just insensitive, it's twisted and voyeuristic. And to make a news item of his sexuality and to pressure him to discuss it publicly is simply wrong.
Each person who has published or sought out information regarding Cooper's sexuality needs to consider the following: First, why is this information important? And second, why do I want to know it? If you can't answer these questions, or don't like the answers, then you may need to do a little soul-searching.
Because young people are afraid being gay makes you a loser - are you on a planet where f*ggot and "that's so gay" aren't the worst insults kids use?
Were you under a rock during the "It gets better" movement? Or just smugly refused to understand what it really meant because you want to believe there's no problem because it doesn't affect you.
Are you totally clueless that there are the millions of gay men who stay in the closet, get married, because they didn't want to be relegated to being the emasculated joke the media presents as "gay".
Do you not see how important it is to have a diversity of gay role models, a guy who has the balls to report from war zones to balance out the overrepresented Ru Paul's, Richard Simmons and sitcom swishes?
Sheesh, I can't believe I'm wasting my time responding to such a dumb article.
I think this is too simple a reading. I actually agree with the *normative* thrust of this article; but the conclusions, while obvious I think (to most of us), are idealistic. I don't think the media are soooooo concerned with his sexuality because the media see homosexuality as bizarre. If anything, I think people who are not in the know are astounded by the sheer diversity of the community as well as how many gay and lesbian people are all around them in everyday life. In the past 2 or 3 years there has just been an absolute onslaught of stories, outings, coming-outs, developments in the gay rights arena. It is naive to think that someone as visible as Anderson Cooper would not attract otherwise innocent attention when he finally comes out. I think people wonder about it BECAUSE he is in the closet, not because of homosexulity per se. Homophobes and allies alike, I think, often times don't understand the whole idea of the closet. Allies think there is a lack of confidence that, at least now, may be a tad irrational and indicative of something emotional, and phobes tend to think that if there is nothing to be ashamed about, then gays wouldn't be ashamed. It's the closet more than his sexuality that is causing the attention.
What planet have you been living on? If you actually are a gay rights supporter, why don't you just keep your mouth shut because we have more than enough to deal with without having to apologize for the gross stupidity of our supposed friends.
Not asking would be an insult. Asking but not listening to the answer would be an insult (and the jury's out on what the writer of this will do).
Asking and listening -- well, that's progress. Whoever wrote this piece, from what I could read, was wishing that this was not an issue (for the right reasons) but decided that the solution was to pretend that it's not.
My one agreement with people who decry political correctness is that, if we demand that everybody have everything right with the first thing they say on the subject, some of them will be afraid to ask questions because they might make a mistake. This guy sounds like his heart's in the right place, and he said something about it. Maybe he'll learn something.
When I was 14, and considering killing myself because I felt like I had to be the only "one of THOSE" in the world, and I heard on the news that San Francisco had elected a gay man to its Board of Supervisors, my reaction was to think, "They elected the happy guy? Why is this news?"
I had never even heard the word gay outside of Christmas carols.
I can tell from the way you wrote this that your heart is in the right place. Talk to your gay and lesbian friends, and I have no doubt you have them, and ask them what it was like when they were 14. Ask them how alone they felt.
They probably didn't feel as alone as I felt in 1977. The world has changed. Because people came out and people in the profession you no doubt hope to enter decided that this was news.
Thank God for that, and please reconsider your wish that this issue would not be an issue -- it will only cease to be an issue on the day that this particular news is old news, to everybody. Not just you.
But this is one of those things where you can't make it irrelevant by pretending that it is.
In this context, "I don't want to hear about it," is the ethical equivalent of "Please shut up and go away," which comes perilously close to "You ought to be ashamed of yourself," which is what people will assume me are if we go along with this.
It's tough, though, because I think you'll agree that the guy who wrote this is not an enemy -- I don't want to jump down his throat, but it's not something we can let pass by.
It is genuinely appreciated that you think this isn't important and doesn't matter. It shouldn't be important, and it doesn't. But that doesn't change the fact that it does. Please read my comment above yours, and consider how your approach would (unintentionally, I am sure) have the effect of keeping people like me believing that we are totally alone.
I'm sorry if you don't want to hear about the fact that we exist. I hope you'll be willing to live with hearing that because some of us, at one point in our lives, thougth that nobody else like us did.
And then I'll hope you'll consider regretting criticizing us for telling the truth, and the press for reporting it.
Your kid trusted you enough to tell you at 16. Trust like that doesn't happen by accident -- it's freaking earned.
Fanned and favorited (and for way more than just your post here).
"And second, why do I want to know it?" It's completely irrelevant. Your first question and my answer should be enough to report and talk about Anderson coming out. Until homophobia is eradicated from the planet, coming out is VERY important.