Every now and then a media meme comes along that is so stupid that I can only roll my eyes in disgust. Unfortunately, these same memes are often too ubiquitous to ignore.
--Is a straight woman over forty more likely to get killed by a terrorist than to marry?
--Are the ex-cast members of Seinfeld "cursed"?
--Is Superman gay?
No, yes, and who the #%*& cares!
The gay newsmagazine the Advocate started the "Is Superman Gay?" madness with a May cover story that, for the record, never actually suggested that Superman was gay, just that he had a gay "sensibility."
The meme, in turn, was picked up by
The Los Angeles Times,
ABC Nightline, even the
Drudge Report--which typically and deliberately misconstrued the story, claiming that The
Advocate was saying that Superman was gay, thereby making it far more outrageous and inflammatory for the nitwits who read his site.
And my eyes are rolling so far back into my head that all you can see are the white orbs, like the blind mutants in that old Charlton Heston flick The Omega Man.
Yes, yes, secret identities are a metaphor for closeted gay people, and hot men in tights are, well, hot.
But the only reason anyone is talking about this at all is because Warner Brothers has a two hundred million dollar movie to sell (and a hundred or so million more spent on marketing!). That means they have to target as many specific demographics as possible.
I'm not saying that Warner Brothers called up The Advocate and said, "We want you to write a total puff piece raising the profile of our movie among your highly desirable movie-going demographic!"
But Warner Brothers' marketing folks surely asked the question, "How can we interest gay men in our movie?" And then they did everything possible to interest us, including offering screenings, and little tidbits of information to influential media folks--"big mouths," in industry parlance.
Remember that story last fall about how the bulge in Superman actor Brandon Routh's tights was so big that it had to be airbrushed down to avoid shocking viewers?
You think that story wasn't deliberately concocted, or at least deliberately released, by someone thinking it would tease the gay audience?
Oh! you say. Movie studios would never do that!
You blushing media virgin. Movie studios do that, and far more, if it means ensuring that their movie is a hit.
What's happening with Superman is called "viral marketing." This is when corporations spread awareness of a product by manufacturing ideas and deliberately trying to spread them through pre-existing social networks.
In other words, free marketing.
And our current fractured, but highly targeted media environment is oh-so-perfect for viral marketing to work.
In short, you're being manipulated like a cat by a piece of yarn.
Click to read my whole essay at AfterElton.com!