The Sickening Snickering

[Zhade]

They made me laugh at myself.

They mocked me, and I let them, without realizing until later how they'd tricked me.

Yes, I'm talking about that reprehensible Snickers campaign, the bulk of which eluded me until last night. Consequently, I didn't realize how they violated me and everyone like me.

I work for DirecTV Sports, and we watched the Superbowl (I, not knowing how hatefully homophobic the Colts organization is, stupidly rooted for them as they are my co-worker friend's team). I saw the ad, and I laughed.

I thought they were mocking the reaction, not gays.

I was dead wrong.

We all know the level of vile distaste the campaign and the teams' filmed reactions personify by now, and you pretty much have to not really care about GLBT rights to dismiss our reaction. I now include myself in that reaction, and fully support the eradication of that campaign from the airwaves. Given that my company just landed a major NASCAR contract, there's a strong chance that I would have seen at least a couple of co-workers laughing at the self-poisoning or self-injuring versions during the Daytona 500.

Do you know how much it angers me, hurts me, to know that I laughed at the very attacks aimed at GLBT folk like myself? Anti-gay attitudes are so embedded in this society that desensitization allowed me to find humor in hate directed at me.

Hell, even long-term DUers not usually thought of as trolls use bullshit rhetoric like "you don't have it that bad", "lighten up", and "it's a lifestyle/preference/culture"!

I'm glad they pulled the campaign, and in a way I'm glad this happened, because it shook me up. I'm gay, and even I fell for their jokes at my expense. I guess all those years of denying my orientation let unwelcome impressions sink in, and I refuse to let them manipulate me again. I will not be fooled again.

Now THAT really satisfies!

[karlrschneider]

1. You're absolutely right.

I lived in Tampa for years and actually liked Dungy until I found out what a fucking homophobic hypocrite the prick really is and never again will a Mars product find its way into my home.

[Midlodemocrat]

6. Nor mine. And my children love Snickers bars.

Or should I say 'loved'. My eldest saw how I reacted to the ad campaign and decided for themselves to forgo all Mars candy as their small message about how offensive it was.

:hi: Karl. How are you?

[karlrschneider]

12. I'm great! Thanks. Actually, I have enjoyed a Snickers once in a while over the years

just because, well, dammit, they taste good...but no more. :D

[Zhade]

16. DUers' kids never fail to amaze me.

Tell your kids they rock for caring!

[Midlodemocrat]

18. In all honesty, they do.

Interesting thing happened to me today. An old neighbor returned to my neighborhood after moving away ten years ago. She has kids, I have kids. She's a real RWer, husband went to the Naval Academy and frankly is a bit of an asshole, kids are perfect.

So, here I am in my messy kitchen trying to toss back a bit of lunch before I have to go back to work. Dishes everywhere because my less than a year old $1000 dishwasher isn't working :eyes: story for another day.

And Mrs. Perfect rings my bell. So we spent some time catching up. Her kids are all perfect. In this college, or this academy and all honor students and all athletes and the daughter is even a runner up Ms. Texas.

And, sitting with her, (not bragging about my own because my mom said you should never do that), and it occurred to me that her kids didn't even have a clue about what my kids lives are about. My two eldest are both in high school, typical kids. Rooms are a mess. Bathroom is disgusting. But, and this is a big but, they care about others. My daughter was distraught because a lesbian friend had been kicked out of her house and my son has taken a boy who has no friends under his wing (and to a 14yo boy, that is the kiss of death)

Justice for all and everyone. Anything less is justice for none.

Too long I know. I'm rambling.

[msongs]

2. there you go again, standing up for your rights....

some DUers think that these kinds of ads are fluff and no big deal and some people are making too big of a deal about it. These DUers find it distasteful to have so many threads and words written here and that gays and lesbians oughta just STFU about this sort of thing.

I am glad to read what you have posted.

the moral of the ad I saw is: gay is bad and repulsive. Well some people think that is true and they are welcome to that belief IMO as long as they keep it to themselves and don't use it to sell candy to children.

BTW do all those football players HAVE to pray to the coach's version of the lord or are some doing it against their own wishes?

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[karlrschneider]

3. Out of all those players there MUST be some Muslims, I'd think...

:eyes:

[Zhade]

4. I wondered that myself - surely there MIGHT be an atheist on one of the teams!

But just like being gay, it's probably a death sentence in the NFL (and most of the sports world, female former-Eastern-Bloc tennis lesbians aside) to be an out atheist.

What infuriates me the most is that I was one of those who didn't get it at first, and I should have.

[karlrschneider]

13. I confess, I never saw the commercial until about an hour ago, on the local CBS

news broadcast...but having read so much about it, I had an opinion that was completely validated
when I did finally view it. Offensive, yes...scurillous, yes...degrading, yes. No redeeming social value whatsoever. Bah.

[Midlodemocrat]

5. I know you posted in a thread yesterday that you disagreed with me

and my stance on this.

I don't want to say that I'm 'glad' you saw it the way the rest of the DU GLBT community did, because I don't feel that there is a pack mentality about it, although others disagree.

I posted what I did yesterday because I simply adore a great many DU GLBT members and I was deeply, deeply saddened that they were hurt.

And because of what happened to me this past summer when my husband was in surgery and how it would have gone down if we had been a gay couple.

You may have known that.

But, thanks for this, Zhade. I know there are a lot of people here who will appreciate your comments.

Best to you. :hug:

[Zhade]

9. Please, feel free - I'M glad I got it.

It's not a pleasant feeling to be gay and know you got punked by ant-gay assholes.

And you didn't say I supported hate or that I was a sell-out or fake, so no worries!

[TygrBright]

7. It's odd how different people reacted to this dumb ad...

...I was watching the game with several people, some of them gay, and we all agreed that it was mocking the kind of immature, testosterone-poisoned, morons who are terrified by gayness. But no one thought it was amusing. Just dumb.

And yet, on reflection, I could see where others would see other things in it. It was just a dumb ad any way you look at it and it's hard to imagine how anyone thought it would be a success.

puzzledly,
Bright

[Zhade]

10. Once you get to the online stuff, it's not even debatable.

I think they were very slick with the ad they aired.

Deceitful pricks.

[Midlodemocrat]

15. I agree. I didn't see the ad Sunday night, but

as an ex-marketing geek, I went online Monday morning to check out the ads I missed. I have to say, I was horrified. I couldn't believe it had ever gotten past the idiot with the concept to actual completion.

When I was in marketing and doing advertising, there were so many hoops you had to jump through with regulatory and legal, the ad campaign was just astonishing to me.

[cboy4]

8. Nice post!

:thumbsup:

I just hope you haven't been bullied into your position. :eyes:

[Zhade]

11. Nope, but the anger I felt directed at me in your "cooling down" thread...

...(Not from you, btw) did kind of wake me up.

[bliss_eternal]

14. ...from me perhaps?

:hi: I posted in that thread (I think) not sure if I got in before it was locked. Pardon me, feeling kind of loopy today.

[Zhade]

17. Nah, you weren't brutal.

I'm not going to name names, of course. Besides, even the unfair attacks were of some use in waking me up.

[bliss_eternal]

19. LOL--good to know!

I try NOT to be, sometimes it's hard when you feel passion about something and get too emotionally involved.

I tend to respond in most issues relating to minorities--women, glbt, people of color, immigrants, children, etc.--so I jump in from time to time on such issues. Not as much as I once did, though. Too many here seem unwilling to see things from other perspectives and seem more intent on being right and arguing. Kinda' wasted energy, you know? :shrug:

Anyway, I'm glad to hear you had a change of heart, so to speak. Though, of course everyone's entitled to a difference of opinion.

If I was rude or nasty I do sincerely apologize. :hug: