Since Exodus claims to be “contacted” over 400,000 times every year (that’s about once every 30 seconds during normal business hours) Peterson decided they will probably need to outsource to a call center in Bangalore to keep up. Petersons’s audio post is obviously just satire. If the absurdity of the concept didn’t tip you off the over-the-top accents, gay as well as Indian probably will. Yes it seems “Chad” is having some inner conflict over a recent press release issued about Brokeback Mountain.
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The “Indian” accent is offensive really. Bordering on racist.
I don’t think this is worth including here.
As a performance artist and satirist, I often work with recognizable accents. When I do, I seek to present a person and not just a flat stereotype. In a short piece it is difficult to bring out the complete depth of a character but one can tell if I am making fun of a person or satirizing an idea.
The parody referenced in this post is a respones to my own post about the absurity of the number of individuals Alan Chambers claims contacts Exodus every year. I suggest that with so many in-coming calls and e-mails, they may need to set up a call center in India.
I made specific choices about the character Matthew, the technical support technician. You will notice that he speaks standard English, in complete sentences with a sophisticated vocabulary. He is professional and knowlegable about his job (albeit absurd). He makes no cultural, religious or ethnic references.
The accent is recognizable as an Indian accent. I considered a moderated Indian accent that had been minimized. Many call centers in Indian train their technicians to speak with an Americanized accent because many American English speakers carry assumptions about people who speak with rich Indian accents. You can consider it an “ex-Indian” movement of a sort.
I opted for the richer accent, which is a legitimate accent, to stress the parody of an American white protestant “ex-gay” call center run out of India.
As an actor I play many characters from all sorts of ethnic, social, cultural, religious backgrounds. Simply playing someone from a different culture does not make it racist. It is what one embeds into the character and lines and how others treat the character within the piece.
I stand by my choices with the character Matthew, as well as my choice of the effeminately gay character Chad.
The choices I make in my art are intential and done after careful thought and consideration.
I sometimes think Ex-gay watch spends too much time promoting the work of gay artists and writers. It really should be about reporting on the ex-gay movement and the Christian right.
Of course those who run it can do as they wish. I just think such promotion dilutes the message and mission and raises questions about why this blog is here.
Especially since the authors of the blog seem to have their favorite artists and writers whom they are repeatedly reporting on.
Maybe a bit off topic, but I wonder if they don’t count as a “contact” receiving by mail a phone bill, electric bill, Publisher’s Clearinghouse, the weekly grocery store promotionals, missing child cards, etc. Factor in magazines, and other trade publications and it really adds up!
It’s certainly some entity trying to contact someone, in the most technical of terms.
I bet I get about 3,000 “contacts” every year myself!
Puddy, I really don’t understand your point at all.
This blog is about ex-gays and the ex-gay movement. Peterson’s post is about the ex-gay movement and about the absurdity of Alan’s claims. I think it’s worth reporting on.
Usually the only time XGW links to a post by a gay blogger, it’s because it has something to do with the ex-gay movement. In addition, there’s only a couple gay blogs out there talking about this stuff, so to you maybe it looks like “playing favorites” – I don’t know, because it doesn’t to me. I suppose if more bloggers were talking about the ex-gay movement, then XGW would link to more bloggers. Kind of how it works.
This seems as ridiculous to me as those people who claim that XGW shouldn’t focus so much on Alan Chambers, Stephen Bennett or Exodus.
The people who are making the news (like Exodus folks, Alan, etc) and the people who are doing the work to counter their claims or point out the absurdities (like Peterson, in this example) should be discussed here.