I often find myself writing in posts, with some incredulity, the phrase "you can't make this shit up." But apparently, you can. You really, really can!
Awhile back, I shared a link on facebook about a lesbian woman in Syria who wrote a blog by the name of A Gay Girl in Damascus who had been snatched by local authorities. Campaigns were starting to put pressure on the Syrian government to release her. Later that afternoon, questions were beginning to arise about the veracity of the information coming through about blogger Amina Arraf, and by the next morning, a white dude by the name of Tom MacMaster came forward and admitted that he'd been posing as a lesbian to write the blog, and that Arraf had never existed.
Brian Spears wrote an awesome piece in response to the news of this event over at Jezebel, called "A Note To My Fellow White Males Regarding A Gay Girl In Damascus," and it is spot on.
Then, fast on the heels of the Gay Girl In Damascus debacle, it turns out that "Paula Brooks", the editor of a website called Lez Get Real is in fact an old white retired construction worker named Bill Graber. The Washington Post writes that Graber says he started the site because of struggles experienced by close lesbian pals. But I have to note the the very first subheading under the website happens to be "sex and erotica". (Hey - maybe his close lezzie pals were, like, super hot. Anyhoo...). What do I know? Maybe the guy's a swell, class act. Um, except for that whole appropriation of lezzie voice and experience bit....
And I guess I just have to say - I don't get it. Was it that the sexting as a lezzie was just too good to pass up? Because you can't tell me that these guys really thought they'd be taken more seriously by appropriating the voice (or their definition of a voice) of a lesbian... It's just...Odd. Capital O Odd. Creepy Odd. Really.
Anyhoo - just, you know, in case anyone was worried - I'm not a actually a dude, pretending to be a depressed, harried, overly-analytic, potentially self-indulgent, and certainly existentially challenged lezzie mama. That's all real, baby. ;)
* I should note that Lez Get Real does appear to mostly be a news based site. With a spot o' porn thrown in, natch ;)
ReplyDeleteMama T
** okay - having just now read all of the sex and erotica section, I can safely say that dude didn't start the site for that reason. BORING and benign, for the most part.
ReplyDeleteMama T
i don't get it either - yes, it's creepy odd... and, well, just plain creepy.
ReplyDelete"I'm not a actually a dude, pretending to be a depressed, harried, overly-analytic, potentially self-indulgent, and certainly existentially challenged lezzie mama."
ReplyDeleteAh, but if you WERE a dude who was pretending to be a lesbian, then that's exactly what you would say, now isn't it? Think back to the old Commiephobia days when the denial of being a Communist was seen as proof of being a Communist, because if you weren't a Communist, you wouldn't have anything to hide, and therefore you wouldn't lie about it.