A Generation of Confusion

A Generation of Confusion


Sexual identity is turning into a dividing factor; it is a personal matter and should be treated as such. Declaring oneself gay is becoming a fashion. Sexual identity is becoming a trend. Youth Culture is ripping homosexuality out of personal lives and throwing it into the open air as if it is meaningless. The up and coming GLBT (Gay Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered) movement is working against developing an understanding of others view points. This pop culture aspect of classifying a novel with homosexual characters as Gay and Lesbian is isolating people and limiting personal expression. This is a fashion the publishing companies are reaping for all its worth. Book Stores are guilty of the same thing, lumping novels with gay characters with books about homosexuality as Gay and Lesbian in their stores.

Homosexuality is appearing more and more in the media. The media, with its frivolous gay soap opera and sitcom stars is only building on the negative homosexual views. Teen oriented shows especially are taking the personal aspects out of sexuality. Every character becomes bisexual when alcohol and drugs are involved at parties. The American youth of today is the most confused generation of all time.

Gay men are becoming novelties in popular films. The bride has a gay best friend, the star receiver is gay, upon coming home with her fiancé she finds out he has a gay brother. The chick trio in most flicks is being infiltrated by whiny, gay counterparts. The addition of gay minor characters is becoming the new hot factor in upcoming movies. Take Nick and Norah’s Infinite Play List for example, it is an excellent movie about a handful of teenagers out on the town looking for their favorite band. In the novel there are four main characters, Nick, the other members of the Jerk Offs and Norah. Although the novel places the homosexuality of the band members at a more important role in the plot, the movie keeps with the pattern and only mentions it. Homosexuality is becoming nothing more than a controversial novelty in popular culture. In Youth Culture it is nothing more than an aspect to sell more tickets or raise the number of viewers.

Print works are being treated completely differently. Books have been banned by religious groups for having homosexual undertones. Books like Catch 22, Catcher in the Rye, A Separate Peace and Lord of the Flies have all been tagged with homosexual undertones. Literature is art and should be treated as such; male nudes painted by male Renaissance artists are not classified as gay art.

Media is ridding this new GLBT wave so heavily that the classification of literature is becoming threatened. The sudden trendiness of labeling something with GLBT in Youth Culture is causing the over grouping of books, novels and writings. Many authors that have identified themselves as homosexual, such as David Sedaris, have had their work shelved in the Gay and Lesbian sections of books stores. This would not be a problem if these sections are being properly placed in the stores. Joseph Beth Book Sellers in Pittsburgh’s Southside has their GLBT section on the second floor. It is in a stuffy hard to find corner and it is not really a section but more of a cardboard shelf. The Barnes and Nobles in the Waterfront doesn’t even have a heading on their Gay themed assortment. When I asked where I could find a gay romance novel, I was directed to what appeared to be the African American and Cultural Studies section of the store. My look of confusion was met by the employee blushing slightly and gesturing to the last two rows above the floor.

I’ve never seen a novel engaging in intercourse with another book of the same genre. So how can a book be gay? The sexuality of the characters involved in a story is as needed in their description as their personality sense of humor and beliefs. Without such basic information the reader cannot fully understand the antics, opinions and behaviors of the character. If my characters are homosexual does it influence the plot of the story so much so that it has to be taken aside and given its own separate genre? No, if fact it does not unless you’re a books store.

This is not the proper workings of a genre classification system. Genre defines the type of story and the plot within the pages, not the person who put the words in there. Books with gay and/or lesbian characters have been put in the section as well. I noticed this happened when the sexuality of a character had nothing to do with the plot. Kristopher Reisz’s novel, Tripping to Somewhere is one of these cases.
America needs to unite its subcultures. Sexuality should not be a defining area in art or media. Everyone was created equal, isn’t that what someone wrote a couple hundred years ago in an important document? Let’s make all people equal and start with personal expression. I don’t see any section labeled Straight Literature so why do we need to classify books with subheadings like those of the Gay and Lesbian or African American Literature section? Can’t literature just be literature? Isn’t fiction, fiction regardless of who wrote it? Isn’t this classification just another form of segregation?