Tuesday, November 30, 2010

What is 'Gay' on Twitter

One may ask what is tweeted on 'gay' on Twitter. I wanted to explore the unknown and investigate. This past evening I typed the word 'gay' in twitter, selecting the option 'near me' to see what my fellow tweeters were saying. It was evident, after reading 233 tweets, that more than 56 percent of the tweets referred to 'gay' men as a mere accessory for the straight woman or worse that gay men possess qualities that are very similar. 
I wanted to perhaps better understand why people tweeted tweets such as " RT @: 4real LOL @: Why do you girls alway talk about wanting a Gay friend?!?? « Cuz gay men are honest & funny :)" This tweet referred 'gay' men as being honest and fun...hmm...I then tweeted back asking what makes a 'gay' men honest and fun, and does this concept apply to all gay men? her response was "what you da fuking gay popo," clearly she did not have a valid argument as to why 'gay' men are honest and fun. Thus, making her tweet irrelevant and a very weak argument. Another tweet that stood out was "Most Gay men tend to provide excellent customer service! compared to some people " I tweeted her back asking what makes gay better in customer service. Her response iterated that gay men are nice men and they know how to make woman happy. Ok, so that is not a clear argument. I left it at that and did not feel the need to further pursue this tweet. 

  The nastiest tweet I got came about just five minutes of typing 'gay' into the search box " My 12yo asks 'How do gay men have sex? Do they wee in each other's mouths or do they tie their penises together?'" wow...not sure what to make of this tweet. Really it is irrelevant to my blog, however, I could not resist this tweet...what is it that allows people, a twelve year old, to come to such conclusions about gay men that are widely spread and believed. 
I am not sure and therefore I will not answer the question until I have found what it is that I am looking for. However, what I will say is the tweets were stating much of the same information: such as, gay men are woman's best friends, gay men are nice and honest, skinny and gay men rock....
This is a problem, how is it than one can define and conceptualize that all 'gay' men act like this. Yet, when I respond to the tweet the responses were vague or they were pissed. It seemed as if much of the people I argued against were unable to argue their original claim. Thus, making their argument very weak. Rather, they began to attack me instead, which again is irrelevant to the actual argument that  all gay men act or possess the same character traits. 
I will continue to type 'gay' in and see whether or not the same kinds of tweets pop up again. Until then I am going to figure out which woman I best match, after all I am her accessory. 

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