(a
cross-post from my
personal blog).
I just read this
entry
on DailyKos about how the Political Radical Right is using prejudice
and bigotry against gay people to fuel their money machines. Ok, the
post was about what kind of people Terry Schiavo's parents are selling
their supporter list to. But what caught my attention was the use of
the bigotry. But from a framing point of view, something else was also
noticeable:
the radical right wing extremists almost always capitalize
'Homosexuals' in their communications to their "base." Always. It's
Homosexuals. Never 'homosexuals.' Even though as a matter of grammer,
if the word doesn't appear at the begining of a sentence, it should not
be capitalized. So the question is why is it?
Is it an accident?
Accidents don't happen every time. Is it just a style they use? Well,
do they always write 'Women' or 'Children'? Nope, that's not it. What I
believe it is is a very calculated and directed move. You see,
capitalizing in written communications gives it a special effect. It's
depicted like some kind of an artificial organization (all
organizations, by definition are man-made, and therefore artificial),
instead of a natural group of
people.
It's like 'Republicans' or 'Democrats' or 'Christians' or 'Al Queda' or
'Ku Klux Klan'. Capitalization is applied to a well-defined group that
some people decided to put together when one did not exist naturally.
This serves a purpose: reinforcing their claim that 'Homosexuals' are a
crazy special interest lobby group in Washington, DC and capitols
around the US and more importantly, not actually natural, normal
people.
Yes, of course this is misleading, but that's the point.
This
all serves their agenda perfectly. The radical conservative right (or
the Radical Conservative Right) is in trouble if their "base" starts
perceiving gay people as
people.
They know as well as anyone that Americans are a compassionate people,
and once people start realizing that gay people are real people just
like themselves who wake up in the morning, drink coffee, go to work or
school, have families, care about their loved ones and are contributing
members of society, there will be no place of bigotry. This happened
during the women's rights movement, and more recently the civil rights
movement. Americans are predisposed against injustice, and objectifying
- the tactic used against both women and blacks (and really, all
colored people) - is the only way the Radical Right Bigots (yup, you
guessed it, the capitalization was intentional) can continue to push
their agenda. In this way, they are no different from those who opposed
women's sufferage (some of these wingnuts still do), or the KKK.
Once
you objectify, it's easy to institutionalize. So now the gay people are
the 'Homosexuals' who are a lobby that is well funded and "powerful"
(where the hell do they get this stuff anyway? Oh yes, as Al Franken
would say, they pull it out of their butts) and are working against the
beliefs of conservatives. This obscure distant lobby organization wants
to dismantle the family. They want to poison your kids' minds. They are
monsters who are destroying America. And the whole bashing list goes on
and on and on...
But, there is more to it. And this is probably
more important than the written frame because talking heads are talking
ALL THE TIME! Look at
spoken word (as
opposed to written) the
word 'homosexual', which is what the right wing always uses to the
complete exclusion of the term 'gay people' or the term 'LGBT' while
speaking. Why? Because that use humanizes the people of minority sexual
orientations, and the Radical Right's agenda is to demonize them.
'Gay', 'lesbian', 'bisexual', 'transgender' are all nutral, rather than
inflamatory, terms, and all of them, in the public consciousness,
differentiate but do not demonize. On the other hand the use of the
word 'homosexual' (I have no problem with the term) invokes a religious
and cultural connotation, a negative one - especially for the right
wing base, but also for most other Americans. This is because of the
sexual reference, and most people don't like the idea of homosexual sex, and it disgusts
people by triggering off the frame of sex. Therefore, it instantly
makes it about the
sex,
and never about the
people.
It's also entrenched in the public consciousness - which, incidentally,
the right wing has framed for 40 years - the public frame.
So
there you have it, decoding the 'homosexual' frame, both in written and
verbal form. So the job of progressives and liberals who are interested
in justice is now to (1) be aware of this frame, (2) reframe by using
words like 'gay people', 'LGBT people' (always keep the focus on
people),
(3) once you have broken the frame of sex and got back to the frame of
people,
start emphasizing justice, fairness, and equality as deeply held
values, and (4) turn the table on the right wing by calling them
(whether in so many words is your choice) bigots, anti-justice, and
yes, thereby anti-American.
At least, that's my idea of it. What do you think?