Hey! We are gay... and we didn't even know it! - General Tiki

DZ Dr. Zarkov Member Joined: Mar 07, 2008 Posts: 644	DZ Dr. Zarkov Posted posted on Sun, Mar 16, 2008 9:16 AM First of all, although I don't live in Chicago, I've visited there often over the years and as a (temporarily, I hope) unemployed journalist of 35 years duration. Whenever I visit a city, I always make it a habit to pick up all of the local papers (even the Gay ones) just to see what's going on in the media in that town. The big alternative paper in Chicago is The Chicago Reader, but the city also has scads of neighborhood rags like this one and I don't think too many people read them. It is odd that someone who works in the theater, an art form heavily populated with Gays, would use this kind of insult and think it would be perceived as witty by anyone but a junior cast member of South Park. Her bio on the theater piece she directed that was posted earlier says she also has worked extensively teaching at the college level -- another arena not exactly welcoming to non-PC anti-Gay remarks. It is my considered professional opinion that she wrote this because she is simply dumb as a rock. But where on earth was her editor before this was published? I've never heard Tiki culture thought of as Gay -- although the Bettie Page bathroom in my photos posted on Flickr might be thought of as tipping slightly in that direction (my wife picked the purple background for the leopard skin walls, honest! I swear that I would have gone with black and white if it had been my choice). However, when my wife's 22-year-old niece in Oakland found out we had attended the last Tiki fest at Forbidden Island, she snottily declared that she wouldn't be caught dead at such an event. It's odd that Tiki art like that I've hung on the walls of my basement Tiki lounge is considered part of the hip and cutting edge Pop Surrealist art movement (see Juxtapoz magazine), while some people see it as impossibly nerdy, dorky or -- as Eric Cartman would put it -- "Gay." Uh, err, do you think it might have something to do with all those overweight male Tikiphiles who wear loud Aloha shirts and fezzes in public? (BTW, can someone explain to me what Shriner fezzes have to do with Tiki?)

First of all, although I don't live in Chicago, I've visited there often over the years and as a (temporarily, I hope) unemployed journalist of 35 years duration. Whenever I visit a city, I always make it a habit to pick up all of the local papers (even the Gay ones) just to see what's going on in the media in that town. The big alternative paper in Chicago is The Chicago Reader, but the city also has scads of neighborhood rags like this one and I don't think too many people read them.

It is odd that someone who works in the theater, an art form heavily populated with Gays, would use this kind of insult and think it would be perceived as witty by anyone but a junior cast member of South Park. Her bio on the theater piece she directed that was posted earlier says she also has worked extensively teaching at the college level -- another arena not exactly welcoming to non-PC anti-Gay remarks. It is my considered professional opinion that she wrote this because she is simply dumb as a rock. But where on earth was her editor before this was published?

I've never heard Tiki culture thought of as Gay -- although the Bettie Page bathroom in my photos posted on Flickr might be thought of as tipping slightly in that direction (my wife picked the purple background for the leopard skin walls, honest! I swear that I would have gone with black and white if it had been my choice). However, when my wife's 22-year-old niece in Oakland found out we had attended the last Tiki fest at Forbidden Island, she snottily declared that she wouldn't be caught dead at such an event. It's odd that Tiki art like that I've hung on the walls of my basement Tiki lounge is considered part of the hip and cutting edge Pop Surrealist art movement (see Juxtapoz magazine), while some people see it as impossibly nerdy, dorky or -- as Eric Cartman would put it -- "Gay."

Uh, err, do you think it might have something to do with all those overweight male Tikiphiles who wear loud Aloha shirts and fezzes in public?

(BTW, can someone explain to me what Shriner fezzes have to do with Tiki?)

Post #367219 by Dr. Zarkov on Sun, Mar 16, 2008 9:16 AM