17th
Long Shift & Lesbian Pop
After working a 13 hour shift, here are some thoughts/observations:
> Firstly, I’m going to rant about that ‘I Kissed A Girl’ song. Right, this song is really popular mostly because of it’s form of socially-acceptable controversy. Wow, casual lesbianism is an accepted thing and we don’t live in the dark ages anymore (well, at least the liberal ‘modern’ classes don’t [apparently]). Yet the song doesn’t seem to be about lesbianism so much as voyeurism; the song and video exist partly for a male audience in this mode, as a mainstream, streamlined form of ‘lesbian’ porn fantasy in the same form as the lesbian kiss scene in Cruel Intentions. Yet this is a ‘lesbian porn fantasy’ which still sees the patriarchy as it’s main authority. Even as it suggests a threat to this authority, this ‘kiss’ is something which is risque, ephemeral, enjoyable but unlikely to be repeated. ‘Hope my boyfriend don’t mind it’ Katy Perry says… well actually, he won’t, because he has nothing to worry about (she’s thinking about him after all) and wouldn’t a lot of guys enjoy watching their girlfriend getting off with another fit lass? It instils this idea that serious lesbianism is still actually outside the norm and on the fringe, and lesbianism is simply a way of pushing female sexuality in a different way towards the male gaze (towards our fantastical perversions) and therefore is actually reactionary rather than progressive in it’s attempts to garner controversy. It’s marketable lesbianism which isn’t actually lesbian at all. As a straight guy, I’ll admit, the video is enjoyable (she is quite fit), but it’s deeper implications really do worry me about how tolerant the mainstream media actually is.
Don’t ask me why I was thinking about this; just had a few stretches of the day not to do much in and was trying to think about what some of those ‘crazy’ queer lit critics (Sedgwick etc) would say about that song (and whether they would like it… hahaa).
> A glass exploded when I was glass collecting and I now have millions of shards of glass eating into my arm (I pushed it to me to stop all the others in the glass tower from falling down and thus cut myself more all for the sake of the pub). I then made it for 6 hours without painkillers, which was some achievement really.
> Spurs lost to Middlesbrough. This is one of the worst things in the world for me, in a pub full of ‘Duh-duh-duh-de-duh-de-BO-ROs’ all fucking night.
> Incident at the ballroom bar (there was a wedding in there, I was going between that & the karaoke…):
Wedding Guest [to WG2]: Hello, what’s your name?
Wedding Guest 2: Erm… what is my name?
Work Mate [who knows WG2]: Your name’s Tracey [ed: it’s actually not]
Wedding Guest 2: Yeah, my names Tracey, do you want to fuck me?
Wedding Guest: Alright then…
They then run away from the bar together holding hands. Really hope I’m working on their wedding too!
