Based on my admittedly limited capacity to empathise.
The rest of what me and you say is all speculation, anyway. Don't get the point
Philip Schofield
- Thread starter Dans
- Start date
The rest of what me and you say is all speculation, anyway. Don't get the point
I don't get this revisionism about late 80's Britain being some sort of homophobic backwards shithole. There were many prominent homosexuals on TV and to say that it wasn't safe for him to come out is nonsense. AIDS was a huge topic which involved frank discussions about homosexual sex on primetime TV. Now I will admit that when he worked on children's TV it was probably unwise for him to be obviously gay, but when he moved from kid's TV I don't think it would have been a big deal.
And what if her answer to that question is...no? Looks like sympathy and empathy are being conflated here.
Worth noting how the only women in this thread to post about it have struck a slightly different tone about it than the majority of men.
I don't think it's much of a point either way.
How someone feels they'll be perceived is all that matters, whether it's rational, whether they'll be stoned or whether Grinner off the caf thinks it probably would have been grand.
It'll always be an entirely personal decision.
It also implies he was certain enough about it to make the decision, you simply don't know when he arrived at that state of mind.
This is such a non event story. Why is it even worth talking about?
Cos he's using his status to extinguish the flames of the shit thing he done.
Get all the public SMZ's* on it.
*Social media zombies
It's my opinion, based on not much really, that he's done all this to protect his career from day 1. Coming out now seems weird and I think he's been pushed into that rather than finally felt free to be open.
I agree, everytime a massive story is made of someone coming out it actually sets any battle for equality back.
My male freind two years back never at any point announced he was gay/bisexual and out of the blue one day told me he's dating a man I said okay and within five minutes we were playing FIFA.
Stopping the big announcements and announcing a same sex partner in the same natural way you would a opposite sex one would be the biggest step towards the equality that's being craved.
Totally possible.
Very likely imo.
He's already indicated this is something they have discussed within the family. So it's calculated by definition.
I have heard multiple people say that were growing up in the 80's that the worst thing you could be called in school was gay and I'm not even British.
It's not even widely accepted now to be gay in England. It's evident by the low, low number of zero amount of gay footballers.
There are so many sexualities in the media industry that it wouldn't make sense for him to be caged in by 'the times'.
Talking about a long career here.
What does school have to do with it. I was at school in the 1980s and yes there was lots of that but that's because schoolboys are irritating little cnuts who don't know better.
More like Phillip playing the field! Am I right?
I'm so lonely
I'm so lonely
The revisionism is entirely on your part if you think that the 80's was anything but that and I'd question if you even grew up here to think otherwise. "Gay" was the go to insult at any school I went to and it's so ingrained in me I have to actually check myself to stop from saying it today.
I think you're already spoken for (according to your username)
I will love you forever in a creepy way of you'd like
What goes on in a schoolyard is very different to real life. I don't understand your point.
words and deeds are very different things
You can't just separate the media industry from the whole thing. Either you are comfortable with it or not. Was his coming out free of backlash?
That the 80's was indeed homophobic. Kids immitate what they see and all of them don't call each other gay as the worst insult they could think of if they are not hearing the gay bashing at home. Them using gay as insult is because the playground is treating it as an insult and why would the playground treat it as an insult if society is fine with it?
All I heard during the morning show or pre-dominantly elsewhere is support - which I am actually really pleased for. But nuance innit.
It all gets boxed up in a package that isn't selling what it is. Because it just feels right for the SMZ's.
I don't mean to bring in shit terms that take away from serious discussion. But the industry of his employment is so pro-him I don't get this hero-status.
The 80's is when it all changed. 1988 and 1978 were light years apart in terms of attitudes to homosexuality
David Bowie probably had something to do with that but I still believe everything didn't change and there's still some way to go.
Because these are all people that grew up where being openly gay was inconceivable. The British government fecked over one of its biggest heroes because he was gay.
Because he's in the entertainment industry is more of a reason to come out. There's still a problem with homosexuality because there are entire industries without gay people because of the stigma and commendations are still needed for something that should go without saying.
Yeah sorry I missed those earlier posts saying basically what I said above.
The 80's was what it was. I'm not one of these people that will go back and criticise shit for the sake of it but it wasn't especially liberal. I guess it depends on your perspective because on the one hand you've got Eddie Murphy saying that only gay men get AIDS and on the other hand you've got the Pet Shop Boys, Erasure and Right Said Fred.
Ironic considering 1988 was the year section 28 was passed.
Great. But there's collateral in this! It's not the same thing as a single closeted man who's had a bit of a journey till he found out. We talking flipping decades, yo!
Anyways I feel we are fragmenting in to slightly different arguments because of the way we see this very same situation.
That’s fair enough I suppose being Bi could be confusing for awhile as feelings will be all over the place but on the other point to take 40 years to come to the conclusion you are gay seems like some sort of record. I refuse to believe that he didn’t realise he was a gay man in his earlier years.
Insulting and ostracizing a group of people are deeds.
As straight men I don’t think we will ever comprehend the levels of privilege we have when it comes to sexuality. People in here criticising his choice to live a ‘lie’ instead of coming out years ago should focus their scrutiny on the societal issues that made him make that choice in the first place.
Tom Robinson did more with Glad to be Gay. Was Bowie even gay? He was married to Iman in the 1980s.
Yes and there was a massive outpouring of support for homosexuals from the entertainment industry. Mary Whitehouse was hated by most young people.
To me this story has amounted to...
Man: I’m leaving my 55 year old wife
Twitter: So brave
Man: I’m leaving my 55 year old wife
Twitter: So brave
We're in 2020 and absolutely no footballers feel like they can come out as gay because they know what will happen in social media. There's been a gradual progression in sentiment over the years but that doesn't make it easy for anyone to make it public.
This is such a binary view. It’s entirely possible he thought he was attracted to men but didn’t felt confused, married and legitimately fell in love with his wife but realised what he thought was love wasn’t how it’s supposed to feel. There are countless occasions where men legitimately fall in love with their wives but are gay. Then it dawns on you more and more that maybe you aren’t even bi, you are gay
Justin Fashanu came out in 1990. Yes he took a lot of shit, but he also got a hell of a lot of support.