So, many of us know Macklemore. You know, this guy.
He also sang this song.
And this song. Which has much of the gay interwebs already lubed up for him.
No, really. Not to mention how quite a few facebook feeds turned into Macklemore love once the DOMA ruling was released. I can certainly see why. He’s an attractive, straight, rapper who’s written a song about how he wants his uncle to be able to get married and how rappers should stop using the word “faggot.” So, why am I less than enthused about this?
Warning. This post is going to cover topics that, apparently, people find controversial and inflammatory. Now, I have no problems with someone disagreeing with me, but I would highly appreciate it if we all act like adults and keep the name calling and bitching about people bitching comments to a minimum.
Let’s get a few things out of the way. I think Macklemore is sincere. I don’t think that he wrote Same Love as a publicity stunt. I also don’t think any less of him because he’s straight or because I don’t like his music.
First, let’s take a look at Macklemore himself. First of all, he’s from Seattle and attended the Evergreen State College. I almost went there. It’s a pretty liberal hippy school. In fact, the reason why I couldn’t go is due to the fact that the school doesn’t give out grades. My conservative parents didn’t want to deal with me exploring my sexuality at a school where I was going to get a crocodile in English Lit, so I wound up in state school. So, we have a young man from a fairly liberal background making a fairly liberal stance on marriage equality. Color me schocked. This can, in my opinion, be compared to Megan Phelps who left the Westboro Baptist Church and came out to say a form of “oh shit. I was wrong.” Yeah, Megan has a long, long, long . . .long way to go, but I don’t feel like giving every straight person who says “Oh, yeah, you totally should be able to get married” a cookie and a blow job, but that starts to get into my issues with the fan base. More on that later.
So, Macklemore wrote a song. That song was used as a part of a larger musical political campaign discussing upcoming marriage equality bills. Has he done anything else? Scrolling through a couple links says . . . not really. No donations to organizations. No plans to team up with GLBT performers. No action regarding the homophobia in the hip-hop community, though, that can seem like such a daunting task that I have no idea where one would begin with that.
Ben Cohen came out in support of marriage equality and is EVERYWHERE, and no one in the US even knew who he was before that (please note the use of hyperbole there). Branden Ayanbadejo has been pretty vocal about his support. So far, Macklemore wrote a song and went on Ellen. Now, his actions are good things. I support what he’s done, but, again, I don’t think he deserves a cookie and a handie for telling me that I should totally have the same rights that he has. That, and the chorus of the song just serves to reaffirm his heterosexuality, at least to me (yes. I realize you might feel differently. That’s the nice thing about being different. We get to disagree).
Now, I’ve been out and involved in the gay community for a good 15 years. In that time, I’ve seen a lot of straight people say or do things that make a positive impact on the gay community. The main thing, though, is that when they happen to be straight, or attractive, or both, suddenly there’s a whole set acting like the gods have descended from Mount Olympus when in reality it’s just Angelina Jolie making a big deal that she’s not gonna get married until the gays can. Which ok, that’s great, but does it *really* need to be on the cover of the Advocate? Do we REALLY need another naked picture of Ben Cohen? (don’t answer that). Which brings me to the bigger issue.
The fans.
Yes. Macklemore wrote a song in support of his gay family members. As I’ve noted, that’s about it. I get that he’s young and there’s still time, and I want to support the straight people who support us, but . . . that’s not a reason to spend all day talking about how hot he is.
And is that all he is? A hot guy who wrote a song? Honestly, until I started researching him, I didn’t know anything OTHER than that people thought he was hot. And this is a long standing thing regarding just about any major figure who’s publically involved with gay rights. Ben Cohen? Hot. Zachary Quinto? Hot. Mat Bomer? Hot. Jake Gyllenhall? Hot. Neil Patrick Harris? Hot. John Barrowman? Hot. It’s only when someone reaches a certain age that we’re ok to no longer talk about how hot they are, but . . . it’s usually still snuck into the conversation.
It would be nice to be able to talk about our straight supporters without calling them courageous for playing gay characters (because it’s SO HARD that NO ONE could ever imagine being gay for more than a few months of filming), only chatting about their fuckability, or doing backflips because they think we shouldn’t be second class citizens. Suggest that to the women at Jezebel, and you’d be set on fire.
So, to my geighs out there. Enough with the over the top fan worship. I get that it’s great that Macklemore wrote a song, and yes, we should support him so that maybe next time he can write a good song and actually do something regarding homophobia in the hip-hop community.
Image via Wikipedia.
