To be a movie geek is simple. It can be simple, at least. You just have to put your hands up over your eyes and stay neutral. Neutrality is the thing that keeps geekness weak, easy to make fun off. A sad state of human behaviour. Movie geeks aren't alone in this of course, but it's extra simple to say "It's just movies, it's just entertainment. I don't want to have anything to do with my favourite stars personal opinions".
Well, buddy. Let me tell you a secret. Every time you write a supportive review of a Chuck Norris movie, every time you Tweet how cool Steven Seagal is when he breaks arms... every time you hail Takashi Kitano as a fantastic actor and director, every time you do that you support their fascist, homophobic ideas.
Because I guess you know that Chuck Norris actually thinks that Obama supports gays and lesbians and in the American boy scouts is a conspiracy against Americans? (link)
I guess you know how Steven Seagal gets money from super-homophobe Putin to sell guns - and thereby also support the new anti-gay laws in Russia? (link, link - but there's so much to read about it, Harvey Fierstein have put everything in small, easy to read text here)
Is there any questions about Kitano claiming that gay marriage leads to incest and people getting married to animals? (link - and yes, Kitano have tried to excuse his behaviour with saying it's "all a joke", but really... I don't believe a word of that)
In all these cases people who I've counted as (internet) friends have stepped up and told me that I MUST keep the personal opinions of these actors from what they're doing on the screen. I've been petted on the head, like someone who have no idea what I'm talking about, many, many times.
So how do you support their homophobia, their fight against human rights? Well, you're giving them money. Which might be their only reason for working nowadays anyway. You also normalize their personas by being non-critical to what they use their fame for.
Yes, their fame. Their... fame among movie geeks. About fancy critics. There's not reason for these people to stay quite when they have fame to spread their opinions. I'm sure many of my favourite actors and filmmakers have ideas and opinions I hate. But they keep them to themselves.
They don't use their fame to attack minorities, to spread hate and stupidity. They keep their idiotic ideas to themselves, because deep inside they understand that pink money is also money. I can respect that, as long as I never will hear them call gays paedophiles, or support insane Russian dictators or claim that the "homosexual agenda" is used by the government to control the society.
The sad thing is when I write about this, when I bring up the subject of what kind of moral movie geeks have... the only ones protesting is the heterosexuals. Because they have no idea what I'm talking about... and they don't have to care.
They're not in danger. They're safe.
Of course these are - in my network - quite few. I have a tendency to stop having contact with them. I don't need them as friends. Because they don't understand and will never learn, which sounds harsh. But living as an open man since my late teens has made me very aware of how people react and develope. And when it comes to stop adoring their own homophobic action star it seems impossible to make them understand.
Let me tell you this: if Ian McKellen (bad example, I know - but I don't know any openly gay action star) contacted media to tell everyone that straight people are going to hell, are paedophiles or just being disgusting human beings - I, for one, would support those being attacked - the straights - from these moronic opinions. I would stop buying his movies, I wouldn't give him media attention, he would be a persona non grata in my geek life.
I wish more straight movie geeks could do that to their gay friends. Chuck Norris is not a god. Takeshi Kitano is just a human. Steven Seagal is just a dude with money problems. There's not reason to worship them.
Worship those who do good instead. Those who care. Those who understands that love and respect comes first.
Fred Anderson
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