Old and busted: Lou Reed is so cool. He did a song about trannies that makes the squares uptight!
New hotness: Lou Reed is so bigoted. He did a song about trannies that makes us SJWs uptight!
A student group at the University of Guelph in Canada has apologized for including the Lou Reed song “Walk on the Wild Side” on a playlist at a campus event…
The Guelph Central Student Association wrote “We now know the lyrics to this song are hurtful to our friends in the trans community and we’d like to unreservedly apologize for this error in judgement.”…
In a further statement a spokesperson said: “The lyrics, ‘and then he was a she,’ devalues the experiences and identities of trans folks.
Huh? How?
Other than snowflakes dying to melt generally, all I can come up with is that ‘Holly’ (Holly Woodlawn, I assume) merely plucked her eyebrows and shaved her legs in order to achieve ‘she’ status, i.e. the devaluation being that gender is external and superficial, the transition is as easy as removing body hair. I would also guess that some might be offended at the supposedly simplistic gender binary rather glibly described by Reed’s lyrics: no xe, no Astro, etc.
That’s all I got. I have nothing in common with trans folks.
Find out how many gays on the left hold up “The Boys in the Band” as an example of a breakthrough in cinema for them.
You won’t, because just about every character is flawed.
Only those who are old enough to remember how groundbreaking it was. Ditto for The Ritz.
I have several older friends (now in their early 70s) who are what-else-would-I-be Democrats who still hail both films as examples of what is possible in terms of representation of a once-underrepresented community.
I saw this story over the weekend and had to laugh. There’s a very narrow prism with which to interpret both news and culture among the dominant SJW left. So narrow that if a beam of light were shined through it only a few colors of the rainbow would be represented. It’s essentially the companion to Third Wave Feminism, though I predict it will soon eclipse TWF in narrowness of interpretation and outrage over everyday events (which are almost always slights of some sort).
I always assumed that verse was about a transvestite, not a transexual. What, are trans activists now claiming that drag queens and transvestites are transexuals in denial?
As I understand the song, all five of the characters were based on real people. Holly Woodlawn and Candy Darling were transgendered. I believe Jackie Curtis was as well. At the time the song was released in 1972, it was part of the subversive countercultural sexual revolution that freaked out the squares.
I’m loving some of the headlines: “Sorry Kids, ‘Take a Walk on the Wild Side’ is not Transphobic,” and “Brush Up on Your History.” Gotta love the snowflakes, though. Does it ever get cold on the moral high ground, kids?
Love to know your thoughts, Jimmy, on Blaire White:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDmCBKaKOtOrEqgsL4-3C8Q
I’m on the left, was born well after “The Boys in the Band” came out, and consider it to be landmark cinema. I also love the play, which, with the right director, can give the characters a bit more dimension (the film makes them out to be a bit more self-loathing than they are IMO).
I worked with a director and some of the actors who did the show in 2001 in San Diego shortly after. I also saw a production of it in L.A. in 2010. For a while, I really, really, really wanted to play Michael. Ugh. Oh well.
Sadly, out of the nine main cast members, only three are still alive (Alan, Hank, and Bernard). Cowboy was the first to go in 1986. Michael, Donald, Larry, and Harold all died in the next seven years. They all died of HIV-related complications. Emory died in 2002 of leukemia. He and his wife actually took care of Cowboy towards the end of his life, because his landlord kicked him out of his apartment for having a live-in caregiver (he filed a lawsuit and won; a bittersweet victory).
Hank married the daughter of Lucy and Dezi (he also appeared in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier). Alan works in TV. Bernard teaches.
Sorry to sound stupid, but is the fact that “The Ritz” took place in a gay bath house, along with half the cast going around in nothing but towels the whole movie, was what was groundbreaking? I guess I was too young when I saw it (the first time it was on late night TV, I suppose). I was focusing on Rita Moreno more than anything else as her performance was delightful. One of these days I’ll get around to watching it again. (And I’ll try not to focus on Miss Moreno exclusively, even though I like her acting, singing, and dancing.)
Holy sh-t. I just realised I saw The Ritz for the first time a year ago. A production of it anyway on stage.
(I think I’m trying to block it from my memory. It was so bad.)
In fact, I’m surprised it even got produced on stage back in the day (didn’t it win some awards?). Very one-dimensional, mad-cap, unfunny. It’s the type of play I’d expect a junior high to put on tbh. I’m not even being hyperbolic.
A Shakespearean plotted comedy without the benefit of poetry and metaphors. At best. And even then I just stuck my neck way out there and was being way too generous.
I can’t argue that Boys in the Band hasn’t aged well either. There’s definitely a dated aspect that makes it very challenging to produce. But, it has a helluva lot more substance and has more going for it both dramatically (of course, because The Ritz didn’t have any), but also comedy.
No comparison. At all.
RSG, I’m very disappointed in you! (kidding)
Rita Moreno was married to Marlon Brando and he was cheating behind her back and even forced her to have an abortion. I would have like to see that parody where ruthlessly parodied Brando, Michael Jackson, and Liz Taylor, another Hollywood Dipshit.
I don’t think Lou Reed would be down with today’s SJWs. Didn’t Lou Reed criticize and make fun of the hippies back in the day.
Next hotness (for South Park Republican types): “Lou Reed is cool. He did a song that made the snowflakes uptight.”
Populism is the new counter-culture, and political incorrectness is the new punk rock.