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This
World
An editorial by Ariana
Luchsinger
 We
live in this world. A world full of beauty and ugliness,
exaltation and repression, peace and violence, harmony and
hatred. It's a funny place, isn't it? As we play and work
and live our ordinary lives, stereotypical mockeries masquerade
us as freak-show sexaholics and silently label us their prey.
I'm looking out over this unsteady terrain and seeing ignorance
materialize. Media slanders us as either victims, addicts,
sexual fiends, or flamboyant scenery meant to either shock
or create a more "diverse" background. Now, many of
us have not been secretive since the Stonewall Riots, and
I am no different, but there is a much wider community of
individuals than portrayed. Isn't this somewhat scary that
the world has yet to realize lesbians are not all flannel-clad
truck drivers and gay men are not all lisped interior designers?
 Dramas
such as Showtime's Queer
As Folk do indeed break the mold that the outside
domain has somehow squeezed us into, but again we pay the
price of displaying mostly our sexual side. Giving into cliché
characterization will only make the task of equality more
difficult. Although there have been many breakthroughs during
the past decade that have improved the general public outlook
on GLBT lives, we have to strive for actual depictions to
prove that we are the same. I'm not saying let's start a gay
prime time mediocre sitcom or else Two Guys, a Girl, and
a Pizza Place would have had a new, less conventional
plot line, but I wouldn't have a problem with it if one emerged.
This
is a strange time in history, things are changing, viewpoints
are becoming more avant-garde. Its a time to plant our feet
on this unsteady terrain and deconstruct popular belief that
we are a weak, condemned, unequal people. "We all bleed the
same." We live in this world.
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