Talking points

Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community

by Dennis Carlson

Carlson starts off with stating how society has decided what is normal and what is not. But I ask you isnt normal only what we think is normal?? So wouldnt everything be normal but at the same time its not? Carlson also shows individuals experiences in schools that have to deal with gay and its acceptance.

"On one level,LA Cage aux Foiles may be read as a very conventional text on gayness, constructed within the normalizing discourse of the time. Gay men are confirmed in their role as the Other-a bit silly, prone to emotional and hysterical outbursts, narcissistic, obsessed with sex and fancy clothes. and inhabiting an exotic and "decadent" life on the margins."

In this quote Carlson is talking about how society has made this into the average gay male. And how it has angered him that America has made this into the average gay male. Carlson makes a good point though, because when i think of a gay male myself this is what i picture. Why?? because media makes this the gay male! And not all gay men are like this.

"If, in popular culture. being straight meant being "normal:' that is, affirming (if not always practicing) bourgeois. traditional, repressive, monogamous, married sexuality, then being gay meant-by definition-the opposite. Gay identity was constructed around the experience of being a sexual outsider, deviant,and(quite literally) outlaw."

This quote once again Carlson is saying how this is what is viewed as normal and this is what is viewed as not. So basically this is allowed and this isn't. And when he says outlaw it shows of a stronger word of rather than just "not allowed" it makes you think of illegal.

"We cannot and should not attempt to impose "politically correct" beliefs 011 students; but we have a responsibility as public educators in a democratic society lO engage them in a dialogue in which ali voices get heard or represented and ill which gay students and rc..ichcrs feci free to "come out" and find their own voices ."

This is such a good quote. At the end of the story Carlson says the previous quote. And what he is saying is we cant try and tell students what is ok and what they should be or do. Except as educaters we need to help them find who they really are and let them know all these other ways and that they are ok too.

I found this reading easy to read and not hard to follow along with. It relates back to are other readings because it has to do with diversity in some way or another. We are learning that as educators you are going to see many different views from many different people, and that all are ok and should be accepted. When i read this though i kept thinking of my cousin who is gay. And the quote where it talked about the stereotypical gay and how he is nothing like that.