Only one of us seems to be trigger or hot under the collar about this and it certainly isn't me. I'm used to having straight men tell me how I should be feeling so its nothing new for me. Typical misogynistic homophobia
The thing is though... I didn't tell you how you should be feeling.(not once).. You have seemingly projected your own internalised perspective onto my words and then completely misconstrued what I had actually said. And now your using
my sexuality, or at least the sexuality that you have attributed to me, because I haven't referenced it, as some kind of stick to beat me with. What's all that about? Do you really believe what you have written above and if so, how do you justify an accusation of
"Typical misogynistic homophobia" on the basis of my comments on here? Are you sure you've read them correctly?
Am I homophobic and misogynistic because I have an opinion that is different to yours?, Am I homophobic, because I don't accept your assumed right to invalidate or place a lower value on my opinion, because of your sexuality / gender?
As far as I can see. the chant about 'Gay Bars' is unequivocally homophobic in it's nature. It uses homosexuality as a put down to heterosexual men... At the root of the chant it's essentially playing on the stereotype that gay men are effeminate, poncey and lesser men.... It's effectively equivalence of calling someone a puff, because he wears a pink shirt or makes tea for his wife etc.
I didn't say at any point that it was offensive or suggest that you or anyone else should feel offended, or for that matter, feel anything else about the chant. What I said was a) That your sexuality or mine isn't a determining factor in our ability to discuss or understand the subject and b) That there other factors at play beyond the overly simplistic idea of 'individual offence'... In fact I really don't think it matters whether a chant is offensive or not, because the in many cases the intention is to be offensive... In fact in some cases the more offensive to the opposition the better.
The point with many of these chants 'Tower and Mosque', 'Oh Lancashire' & 'Gay Bars' is that they all sit on the fringe ... There's no question as to the underlying nature of all of the chants... 'Tower and Mosque' seeks to besmirch Preston Fans, due to their Town's large Asian Community (It has racist undertones), 'Oh Lancashire' has it's roots in female sexual objectification and as I've said, the 'Gay Bars' chant has it's roots in homophobia.
We've mostly moved on from chants like "Town Full of Paki's", "Get Your Tits Out for the Lads" & "Town full of Queers" etc... because we know better and hopefully because our society and the game has progressed for the better. There were plenty of people saying exactly the same things about those chants and many of the ones that went on before, but nonetheless we moved on and they haven't been missed in the slightest - in fact Football is better for it. These remaining 'fringe' chants are really remnants of that by-gone era... They're a Dog Whistle back to a former time and for many they are a vehicle through which they can still express and hold onto their prejudices and 'get away with it'.
So as I see it, this is not about you or anyone else being offended and I'm certainly not (as you seem to suggest) riding in on a white horse to protect you or whatever group or community you choose to associate yourself with. Frankly, I don't really care whether you are personally offended or not, but I do care about the society that I live in and I also care about Blackpool FC and I can understand why society, the Football authorities and the Club would prefer to move away from these kinds of chants and the kind of attitudes and prejudices that they encourage.
