John Smyth (after a list of examples of a classical music=3D gay
stereotype) wrote:

>These are some of the snapshots of the CM lifestyle that get stuck in the
>popular American psyche.

I'm not (north)American, but everybody knows a hundred of snapshots in the
popular American psycho which provides quite different associations:

Opera =3D an italian Padrino at his palco eating cannoli and crying,
because of the sad fate of Turiddu (of course:  a few moments ago, he
ordered to kill his nephew, or something like this).

Beethoven =3D anything related to "freedom" (the fall of some wall at
Berlin, etc) or, at least:  Gary Oldman speaking with german accent and
sniffing a thin line of white powder in a large venetian mirror.

>The whole point behind my posting was that a 17-year old CM lover was made
>uncomfortable by friends who know nothing of CM except for when they see
>occasional references in movies, or know of a CM artist who has transcended
>the genre and enjoys name recognition even among the popular culture.

As you know, expressions like "gay" and "homosexual" and other
unmentionable ones, are usual insults and a matter of joke among kids (and
among idiot adults like me and my friends).  Any member of a male group
whose personal characteristics are different from the general standard
(tastes, look, intelligence, stupidity, anything) will be reputed as "gay".
So, if the other members of the group are fanatics of trash metal and the
teenager of your post likes Nirvana, he will be a gay.  The same conclusion
is obtained fatally when you change the premises of this syllogism.  Then,
classical music here is just "empiric data":  the real matter is the
difference between this kid and his group, since among males, a "gay" is
defined by what he is not.  Let's remember phonetics:  in order to identify
a phonema, the sound in itself is not so important as its difference with
the other elements of the system.

Pablo Massa
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