this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16157729

Idaho bar celebrates "Heterosexual Awesomeness Month" with free beer for straight men

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Oh you thought red lobster fucked up? Hold my beer

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 3 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (10 children)

Honestly, I'd love to have more healthy representation of straights.

We never went anywhere, we are the majority, and most of us here in Gen X and Gen Z have nothing against LGBTQ+ people.

Yet when we see any hetero activism, it's mostly about screwing LGBTQ+ people over, not showing the beauty and variety of hetero relationships, which is not only the traditional nuclear family.

This skews many people's perception of what hetero relationships are and/or allowed to be. There is so much in there, all sorts of dynamics, all sorts of approaches, a beautiful spectre of whatever it can be.

And this is something to be celebrated - along with the beauty and awesomeness of LGBTQ+, not as an opposition.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'd love to have more healthy representation of straights.

Yeah because as a group, us straight people are REALLY underrepresented! 🙄

There might be a lot of unhealthy representation of the worst straight people, but by pure amount there's MUCH more healthy representation of straight people than everyone else because there's just so many times more of ALL kinds of representation!

We never went anywhere, we are the majority

And are extremely privileged.

most of us here in Gen X and Gen Z have nothing against LGBTQ+ people.

What's up with the millennial erasure? If anything, our ratio of allies to bigots is better than that of Gen X

Yet when we see any hetero activism, it's mostly about screwing LGBTQ+ people over

Because we don't need any hetero activism. We're already extremely privileged compared to everyone else. The ones that think hetero activism is necessary are mostly homophobes with a victim complex who think that "the gays are taking over" or some such bullshit.

not showing the beauty and variety of hetero relationships

Again, just watch the vast majority of depictions of relationships. The representation is not just there, it's overabundant to the point of exclusion and othering of LGBTQ+ people. That's the norm.

This skews many people's perception of what hetero relationships are and/or allowed to be

Bullshit. There's tons of representation of every type of hetero relationship in the world. It's not all either married people with 2.4 children and a golden retriever or LGBTQ+ people.

There is so much in there, all sorts of dynamics, all sorts of approaches, a beautiful spectre of whatever it can be.

All of which is receiving much more representation than LGBTQ+ people are, without bigoted LGBTQ+ people complaining every time.

And this is something to be celebrated - along with the beauty and awesomeness of LGBTQ+, not as an opposition.

Again, it is. Constantly. It's effectively Straight Pride month 11 months of the year everywhere. Us straight people are NOT being deprived.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I'm talking exactly about increasing the share of healthy hetero representation - as opposed to unhealthy hetero representation and not to LGBTQ+ representation.

Again, this is not a competition, and I do not mean to eat out anything from the LGBTQ+ representation. Supporting one doesn't mean not supporting the other.

It might be the time to make the world better for everyone - while still aware that some people have it worse.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

While I don't disagree with what you said in theory, what's stopping you from having these conversations? Is there a fear of losing your friends if you talk about these issues? What about your job, house, family, or even your life? These are real fears for a lot of queer people, still to this day, even in places like the UK and USA.

There's plenty of media out there that discusses non nuclear relationships for straight people. It's not always mainstream, but it exists. There's still very little for queer people that doesn't have to also tell the story of the bigotry and fear we face on the regular.

Please have your discussions, but rather than not having anything against us, have our backs when our rights and our lives are in jeopardy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

That's what I meant - I do support LGBTQ+ people, that's a no-brainer, and I welcome LGBTQ+ rights and strictly oppose conservative bills trying to take us back into the stone age.

As per conversations - yes, conversations on many kinds of heterosexual relationships are still complicated, and there is a very high chance to be misunderstood, shunned, shamed or attacked, mostly by the very same conservative crowd that makes life harder for LGBTQ+ people.

Aside from that, culture still imposes certain roles in heterosexual relationships, which leads to many young people thinking there's something wrong with them for thinking different, which causes a lot of struggle in itself.

I do not mean it as a competition on who is in more trouble. I just say there's not enough talk about what various struggles heterosexual people might face as well, without trying to take focus away from LGBTQ+ issues.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Attacked for being the "wrong kind of straight couple"? I'm not saying it doesn't happen but I don't know that I've seen any actual attacks for that. Plenty of people preaching that women should stay home in the kitchen or whatever, but on average, social media alone has tipped that scale, I think.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

On that particular scale, there are heterosexual relationships in which women are not just fully emancipated, but actually leading the relationship, serving the role of a main provider etc. Those are often referred to as either female-led relationships (FLR) or gender role reversal.

Women in such relationships are often mistreated and misunderstood, and men are outright harrassed and attacked for their choice to take a "weaker" side, for their "feminity", they are, at best, seen like a burden, and at worst, seen as a punchbag for "not being a man". I've very much seen both in my culture, and for all I know, in other places there are signs of something similar.

In media, at least from what I've seen, such relationships are almost universally portrayed as an unhappy woman and a broken, emasculated, capricious man, as something unhappy and dysfunctional.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 months ago (4 children)

As a straight man, I feel like I've been represented plenty and still am in media. What exactly are you looking for that you aren't seeing? There are thousands of years of representation, still continuing to this day. Don't get me wrong, free beer is awesome but not sure why anyone feels unrepresented as a straight person.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Same. We hetero people are still by far the majority. I don't think it would be possible for me to feel unrepresented, unless I walked into a gay orgy.

Straight pride is just anti-LGBTQ under a different name.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What is represented is a traditional family. This is not the only way things can happen in a heterosexual relationship.

There are amazing couples with changed or reversed gender roles, plenty of happy child free couples, there are heterosexual people entering polyamorous relationships with bi-s/pan-s, there are heterosexual couples with trans people, etc. etc.

All of those are under- or misrepresented, and all of them are very much heterosexual. We need to praise this variety, to show that heterosexual relationships can be unique and different from what we normally see.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You seem to be under the impression that straight couples in media are only ever married with 2.5 kids with a working father and stay at home mom but that really doesn't seem like it's been the case for a while.

While polyamory is probably still underrepresented, I'm not sure about your other examples. Also polyamory often includes at least one LGBTQ+ relationship so I'm not sure it makes your point. And a trans person in a heterosexual relationship falls at least half into LGBTQ+ by definition.

Most rom coms aren't about married couples with kids. Most sit coms show relationships where both partners work. The old trope of the dad who knows nothing about his kids is pretty dead at this point. Divorced and widowed couples show up a lot, too.

I don't think you're wrong that all kinds of relationships and gender expressions should be represented, but comparing it to the overall lack of LGBTQ+ rep out there... Well, one of these things is not like the other.

Also, my sister works and her husband is a stay at home dad. When people hear this they say "oh" and move on. When I mention my nephew is trans... Well the reaction is different. Very different. As stupid as it sounds, media representation plays a huge role in exposing people to things they don't get the chance to see often in their own lives (especially if you're from a small town). It's good for people to see trans characters they like and relate to before they find out about my nephew. I actually use it as a gauge to decide if I should tell people at all.

So long as straight is the assumption (or default), we are gonna need these kinds of spaces.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Heterosexual relationships might absolutely intersect with LGBTQ+ - for example, because one or some of the partners are trans or bi/pan.

I might have created a wrong impression that I aim to compare the struggles of LGBTQ+ people to someone else's. I never meant that. I just said that even in heterosexual relationships, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, and both acceptance and representation of various forms of heterosexual relationships also differ wildly between cultures.

And I wish we could have a higher share of positive and kind representation of all kinds of relationships, including different forms of heterosexual ones.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The answer is the old chestnut,

"When you are accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression."

People like those you're responding to often see the world as a zero-sum game. If LGBTQ+ people carve out -- or in this case, demand -- representation for themselves, they believe that representation must take away "representation points" or whatever from some other group.

Frankly, Pride is the one time of year it's okay to tell these people to shut the fuck up and sit down.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Uh, no. I think I've been super clear in my support for LGBTQ+ community and their representation.

I meant that many kinds of heterosexual couples are barely covered by modern culture, and it's important to show that hetero couples can be very different and still amazing.

Because what I see on hetero couples on the media is just one, very traditional, kind of relationship. That's not how all heterosexual relationships look, and it's important to show that so that people would be more free to be themselves and build their futures in freedom. Freedom to be the kind of heterosexuals they want to be, if they are hetero to begin with.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 months ago (4 children)

How do you prove your sexuality to others?

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You have to make out with the bartender for 5 minutes and then they check to see whether you've gotten a boner or not.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

But if I don't get one, how do they know if I'm hetero or just asexual?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

Asexual people don't exist in MAGALand, silly!

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You have to stare at the bar tender's gaping arsehole for 30 seconds without getting an erection. It's the only way to be sure.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Next month: pink eye awareness month!

Edit: Court ordered pink eye awareness month

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[–] [email protected] 102 points 3 months ago

This totally sounds like a plot for an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode where Mac tries to prove his heterosexuality

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago

This article is lies. Its not a Boise bar, its in Eagle.

Boise is better than this. There are pride flags on the buildings on one street that has all the good bars.

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