WMST/CMST 419

In class today, we watched Christopher Hines’ film The Butch Factor, about masculinity and gay men — the link takes you to the film’s official web site. The site includes a description of the film, early reviews, and information about purchasing the DVD.

An abridged version of the video (about 46 minutes long) can be seen at  LogoTV.com. The full-length version is available from Netflix, and probably from other DVD outlets as well.

Here is some additional information about some of the men featured in the film:

• Trevor Hoppe (the Ph.D. student who decided to “be all the fag I can be”) is nearly finished with his doctorate and already has several scholarly as well as popular publications. His book, Beyond Masculinity: Queer Men on Gender, Sex, and Politics, is scheduled to be published early next year.
• View the online CV of Keith Harris, professor at UC-Riverside, here.
• Bill Yoelin (the rugby player who likes the Incredible Hulk) has worked extensively in filmography as an editor.
• Queer Today is the forum/news site founded by Mark Snyder.
• Jack Malebranche is the pen name of Jack Donovan. You can find out more about his book, Androphilia, and his anti-gay gay views at the book’s web site.
• Larry Gross is a professor of communication at USC Annenberg School for Communication. He worked with George Gerbner on cultivation theory, and he has also published scholarship on homosexuality and communication, including the 1993 book Contested Closets: The Politics and Ethics of Outing, (University of Minnesota Press).
• Brent Calderwood’s music can be sampled here, and some of his graphic art can be seen here.

I was thinking about our discussion of Dude, You’re A Fag and I was reminded of those commercials where a group or a few people would be talking and say “that’s so gay” and then a woman would come over and tell them that you shouldn’t say that, how would you like it if I said ____ was so sixteen year old boy. That got me thinking. Where did that’s so gay even come from? Who decided to use it as a substitute for stupid or dumb? How did it catch on to become popular enough to need PSA commercials to attempt to stop it?

A quick google search turns up several websites against the phrase but nothing exactly telling me where or about when it started. I did find some articles about people being sued for using the phrase however, and many forums against the phrase. I haven’t heard the expression lately so hopefully it is going away.