Putting it here

instead of OT, because lord knows, I do NOT want to start one of those discussions. Plus, this will probably be very rambling and disjointed, and I'm not in the mood to be critiqued.

So, I was reading the cheerleader thresd, and I have these thoughts:

I hate that people feel the need to classify activities as gender specific, and if someone of the other gender wants to participate, that makes them gay. (I also hate that people in this day and age still feel that someone being gay means there is something wrong with them, that they are somehow less than the straight person. But this rant is more about the perceptions of what is acceptable for boys to do, and what is acceptable for girls to do.)

It just disgusts me to hear the generalizations of if a guy is a gymnast, cheerleader (or yell-leader), or ice skater, then he MUST be gay. And if a woman is athletic, well, she's obviously a lesbian. Or that certain ways of dressing signal your sexual predilection. I can remember when I was a teenager, people saying if a guy had his ear pierced, that meant he was gay. Then it became if it was a particular ear (never could remember if it was "left-gay, right-straight" or the other way around). Oh, look! She's wearing a flannel shirt... you know what that means, right?

And I have to be honest, I cringe every time I hear someone boasting of their "gaydar". What fucking difference does it make if someone is gay or straight? The only time I really care, is if it's a guy I'm attracted to. I mean, I would like to know that I'm out of the running completely, you know? The only time I would ever really need to know, would be if the person in question asked me to fix them up with someone.

Crap. I had all these ideas in my head that I wanted to get out, and now it's just one big jumble, and I can't remember if I even had a point to this, much less what it is.

And when ever I hear a kid say "that's so gay", I just want to smack them. I think I've done a good enough job with my son that he doesn't do that. Of course, who knows what he says when he's away from me, and wants to fit in with the other kids. That reminds me of my first OT peep meet, which was last year. I had to bring Clint with me. He had been making comments, using "gay" as derogatory, about other kids at school (and I know that's where he picked it up), and I would try to calmly point out how wrong that was. Well, when it was getting close to the peep meet, I told him that a couple of the people we were going to meet were gay, and he damn well better not say anything to embarrass me. That if he wanted to be ignorant like that, there wasn't much I could do to change it, but he would be polite or else. Having him meet Doc was one of the best things that I could have ever done, to help him realize that "gay" doesn't mean bad or wrong or anything. Doc was so cool, and talked with Clint one on one like he was an adult during the meal, which meant a lot to Clint. When we got back home, Clint wanted to read the boards, to see some of Doc's postings. He always asks me about him, if I've seen him on the boards, etc. Clint said he was "kind". That's pretty much his highest compliment that he gives out. I might say someone was nice, interesting, cool, whatever... but Clint? He says people are kind, if he likes them.

Well, I totally got off track, didn't I?