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Zambezi
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Toe is in the water |
Location: Various (!)
Registered: January 2004
Messages: 40
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Here in Britain we have a monthly magazine called Attitude which is aimed at younger gay men. It's as much about lifestyle and culture as gay issues, but every so often it is a "youth issue" edition. February's is one such. Generally, these are packed with worthy features aimed at closeted teens.
Yesterday I was wondering around my local branch of Sainsbury's supermarket (which stopped stocking Gay Times years ago despite the place being a virtual cruising ground on some nights) on a courgette-hunting expedition and Attitude caught my eye, not because of the picture of Charlie Simpson (of Busted) on the front, or even because it was actually on the shelf - the first time I had noticed it. It caught my eye because the front cover promised a feature entitled "Bad Education: Public Schools Gay Secret).
As an ex-public school boy myself (and those outside Britain should be aware this means private school!) my interest was piqued so I threw it in the trolley. I read it when I got home.
The feature is more about boarding than public schools per se, but it slams boarding schools for their treatment and abuse of gay kids and institutional failure to recognise homophobia as an issue and to get to grips with it - although it does single out some more enlightened US schools, naming Andover and Concord . It interviews a couple of 'experts' and talks about Strict Survival Personality syndrome, and provides links to a support group called Boarding School Survivors.
It would all have seemed perfectly reasonable and believeable as an article except for one tiny detail: it bore absolutely no resemblance to my own school experiences as a gay/questioning teen surrounded by desireable boys which were, almost without exception, positive.
As I read the article a second and third time I began to get annoyed, as this was a mean and largely unbalanced attack on the environment that makes 99% of the fairly well-adjusted and successful man I am today. It is nothing like the fictitious but 'real' (i.e. plausible and essentially autobiographical) tale I wrote of in Pure and Honest Heart, nor is it anything like the other stories Tim kindly hosts here about British boarding school life.
I am tempted to write a counterbalance to this rather mean article either as a letter to the editor or as a freelance article in its own right. But before I do that, I'd appreciate the views and perspectives of some of the Friends on this board - either on the board itself or in private by email. If you are happy for me to recount your positive experiences in my letter/article, please let me know as well.
Thanks all in advance.
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving isn't for you.
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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News articles are mostly written to get a rise out of readers. Usualy facts are not a great part of basically subjective pieces like you described thus a great varying view of real time situations could be applied.
Mostly what I mean is that the reader picks out the phrases that apply to him and ignores the rest making any number of scenierios possible.
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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I wonder if they will accept it, but go for it.
In my school there was no true homophobia, even back in the 1960s. Instead younger pretty boys were "prized" as fashion accessories. Unless, of course, you were serious. When you did come in for ridicule.
In my son's school very recently being gay was wholly accepted and acceptable. Actually his best mate shagged his way round much of the school gay and str8 alike.
A young gentleman of our mutual acquaintance was terrified because he thought his school was homophobic until he managed to out himself, and he found he was a hero.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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