B-links, September 2019

John Rechy:

Look, pre-Stonewall produced Alan Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Oscar Wilde, and I could go on. Post-Stonewall produced Bret Easton Ellis, who jumps out of the closet only now and then and then rushes back in, and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, where we’re reduced to clowns for straight people. The husband of Mr. Buttigieg [q.v.] – he is so darling talking about the silver he’s going to be choosing for the White House. It embarrasses me, it embarrasses me very much, because that’s what people expect a gay man to do – to be very precious – and that’s not what we are.

C. Donktum: “I ask you, if Helvetica became the official font of the KKK, would half the news outlets denounce it as a ‘racist’ font? Or call any other use of Helvetica racist by association? Of course not! That would be ludicrous. But that is the very discussion we are having right now.”

C. Paglia: “American feminism has a man problem. The beaming Betty Crockers, hangdog dowdies and parochial prudes who call themselves feminists want men to be like women. They fear and despise the masculine. The academic feminists think their nerdy bookworm husbands are the ideal model of human manhood.”

Sam Fussell – now something much worse than a bodybuilder or an author, a hunter:

In the first few years you are in the gym, as an aspirant bodybuilder, you learn to train body parts, but you really don’t understand the fluidity of a physique and how, when done right, everything fits together. There are very few bodies on this planet where the bodybuilder has done that and every muscle ties into the next one, eventually comprising one solid, unified whole (as opposed to a collection of astounding, individual body parts).

By the way, right-wing assholes insist Pumping Iron is a good movie. I watched it for what I believe is the first time ever. They’re right. (Killer opening scene with ballerina hardassedly tutoring Schwarzenegger et al.)

IMAGE CONTAINED
BABY SHOES
NEVER LOADED