The other day I enjoyed the somewhat unusual experience of getting involved in a public discussion that wasn't mediated by comforting Blog anonymity. Elanor and I had the good fortune of witnessing the unfortunately titled "Homo and Away", an interactive play modeled on the "Theatre of the Oppressed" that I believe began in South America, but I might just have Y Tu Mama Tambien on the brain (it's almost south!). If I can crudely explain, the audience views two "vignettes" detailing oppression in one form or another, and is then asked how the said oppression could be negated or avoided altogether. In this case we were shown two, quite gruesome, examples of homophobic violence; targeted against two gay youths, one male, one female. The play was excellent (props to Camille), but what was most revealing was the tone of the public discussion that followed: evident to me was a desire to place the blame for victimhood on the victims themselves, rather than their oppressors.


The basic thrust of audience sentiment went something like this: "If these gay teenagers could only be more confident, self-assured and self-posessed, they would be able to stand up to their oppressors and say 'despite being gay I'm a wonderful non-threatening person and one day you will be able to accept me if I give you enough time and space to do so – please don't bash me to a bloody pulp!'". I, as Elanor would say, am uncomfortable with this. Yes, it is nice (for both oppressed and non-oppressed) to think that self-empowerment, self-confidence and rhetorical skills can prevent victimhood (and probably true), but to argue that internal strength is the answer to an oppressive social environment is somewhat missing the point. Firstly, an ability to dodge (violent) homophobia through skills of persuasion and an ability to deploy the language of "mateship" (which the audience tended to use) is hardly a solution to the very real problem of homophobia. Secondly, what people seemed unable to grasp was that for a gay kid growing up in an anti-gay environment, the knowledge that quite a lot of people will hate your guts simply because you are you tends to sap your confidence and people-skills. This is the insidious nature of oppression: excuse my lack of political nuance, but it not only shapes the world around you but it shapes you too.

Now using the word "oppression" does seem kind of pompous; a bit over-blown. Are gays really "oppressed"? They're not usually economically disadvantaged – quite the opposite if all that "pink dollar" theorizing is to be believed. They're not denied socioeconomic mobility (although in some employment sectors I'm sure there's a "glass ceiling" of sorts). They have nice terrace houses and hatchbacks, and cool clothes and long lunches and lattes and smart furniture and copious amounts of education. How could THEY be oppressed? Well firstly, I don't think there should be any hierarchy of oppression, so I'm not going to bother justifying why a focus on anti-gay hatred is important in the face of much more "pressing" forms of bigotry. And secondly, oppression is not simply a socioeconomic force. If you place a kid in an environment that day after day tells him/her that she/he is devious, suspect, abhorrent, devilish, predatory and just plain evil, you are, excuse my French, fucking intimately with their social development. The basic assumption starts to ferment that most forms of interaction with society will be negative interactions, because society does not promise to tolerate who you are. You start to oppress yourself, so as not to "cause a fuss" or "create a scene". You start to censor who you are; monitor the way you act and the facts you disclose. In this overwhelmingly negative pact you form with society, where, dare I ask, does this "confidence and self-assurance" required to "reduce your victimhood" come from? Yes, being fucked over by the world breeds strength, but surely one should isolate an anti-gay society as the root of homophobia rather than its victims? But that was the very vibe I was getting from the crowd the other night. When I did eventually swallow my shyness (and belief in the aforementioned negative pact with society) and decided to "talk straight" with the crowd, I was, ominosly, greeted with a deafening silence...