Like Jody at Naked Writing,
I’ve discovered I’m a shmomosexual.
Someone please inform Randy Thomas before he refers to us unpaid shmomos as the “gay elite” again.
Addendum:
Baptist Press News and the Traditional Values Coalition have reprinted Mr. Thomas’ skin-deep review of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”
The reprints repeat Mr. Thomas’ extreme oversimplification of the Old Testament. Mr. Thomas offers hasty slaps at gay men who dare to criticize men’s bad habits or manners:
Using flippant comments as the rule, the Fab Five exploit an individual’s image concerns and personal insecurities for laughs as they “makeover” this person.
Thankfully, God transforms with love and never shame.
Mr. Thomas uses shame as a key element in his criticisms of gay people of faith. Perhaps he should instead listen to God.
Unfortunately, he does not appear to have helped Baptist Press think intelligently about gender: BPN goes further in its criticism, in a separate article.
Metrosexuality is, oversimplistically, an effort by men to experience and express their masculinity in healthier, less “macho” ways. So of course, BPN blasts the endeavor — and all of America with it:
At its heart, metrosexuality is nothing but narcissism.
Americans are a vain people. We are far too fascinated with appearances. We spend exorbitant amounts of money on clothes and grooming supplies. We want to dress for success and hope that our sharp appearance will “seal the deal.” We are a shallow people.
Metrosexuality is simply old-fashioned self-conceit.
The BPN writer, a theology student, does not respect realistic, humane, and Christ-like models of masculinity and femininity. He maintains that alternatives to his own narrow and inflexible form of masculinity lead directly to feminist environmentally-conscious homosexual pagan liberal-Protestant hedonism:
Metrosexuality is simply the latest attempt to blur sexual distinctions in America. Traditional family roles are passé. Radical feminists wish to be more like men. And metrosexuals wish to be more like women. …
Certain elements of neopaganism have influenced groups such as the feminist movement, the homosexual agenda, environmentalism and liberal Protestantism. Like so many other contemporary trends, metrosexuality is ultimately an attempt to further paganize American culture. Men are emasculated, and told it is a good thing, because they are able to attract more women and relate better to homosexual men. Narcissistic metrosexuality leads not only to androgyny, but also to good old-fashioned hedonism.
The BPN writer exhibits narcissism through a self-satisfied disinterest in understanding or accurately reflecting viewpoints other than his own.
If you don’t like something brand it “neopagan” or perhaps “influenced by neopaganism”. This is being used by the dishonest right as a way to bring environmentalism (which is about both science and values) into the cultural war. Let’s make the claim that some environmentalist philosophies or viewpoints are neopagan, then lets sort of go from there to criticise the whole environmentalist movement as influenced by neopaganism. By the way let’s be sure we keep this concept “neopagan” as ill-defined as possible, so that we can sling it at as many groups as convenient.
I honestly believe there are people sitting around and cooking up smears, lies (“big lies”), and distortions and then doing their darnest to get those lies out there to see which ones stick. These are the leaders of the dishonest right, not their followers, who buy the big lies because of their own psychological needs. The leaders of the dishonest right are not engaged in an honest exchange of views, they are dishonest, they cannot be dialogued with.They must be politically neutered.