From: dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: Marky Mark and Calvin Klein (was Re: Scott Masden)
Date: 16 Nov 92 19:14:34 GMT
Article-I.D.: spdcc.1992Nov16.191434.25299
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA

In article <thaaang.721931083@cwis> thaaang@cwis.unomaha.edu (John Dorrance) writes:
>>>body.  This what-his-name is simply a media creation exploiting a
>>>legitimate art for by co-opting it for the white masses, or in other
>>>words, doing just what he used to do as a member of NKOTB.  I mean, why
>>>isn't he treated with the same dismissiveness as Vanilla Ice was?  I
>
>This is disturbing. Is 'White rapper' an oxymoron?

Close to it.  Let's just say that someone who pretends to be a rapper
and is white has a few more credentials to prove before being taken
seriously.  This guy is just from the same hit engine as NKOTB (don't
give me this crap about being unaffiliated--he's the brother of one of
them, and I say that as someone born and bred in Dorchester, home of
Steve Dyer, Donna Summer, _New Edition_, Marky Mark and NKOTB.)

>(and NKOTB
>was hardly 'exploiting a black art' anyway, unless the boundaries
>for 'black territory' encompassed a lot more than I'd thought...)

Well, it's probably seems that way in Nebraska.  NKOTB was simply
_New Edition_ in white face, and if you don't understand NKOTB's
black roots, you're not understanding their music and how it's a
miracle of co-option and assimilation.  Of course, you don't have
to understand their music to like it: NKOTB was _much_ more lucrative
than New Edition ever was.  QED.

>How often do people other than George flame other people for talking
>about aesthetics?

Perhaps as often as people other than Donald Agarrat talk about race
relations.  You know, both can be pains in the asses, but they have a
point to make which gets lost in the assumptions of the majority.
(I don't mean to trivialize race relations in this comparison; it is
arguably more pressing and agonizing than an aesthetic of what turns
people on, I simply wish to use the analogy as a tool.)

>Like Melinda said, it's more like 'Oh no, all that Furr crap again'.
>And it's because of crap like this. You simply can't talk about
>what you find attractive without telling people that they should be
>ashamed of themselves for liking anything other than your ideal. It's
>sickening, and I really wish you would accept the fact that some
>people have different tastes than you do and just shut the fuck up
>and let people think the way they want to.

The "people have different tastes" claim is really a claim that
"all gay men have a single taste", which is really the taste of
Calvin Klein ads, 90210, Melanoma, bad plaster casts of Michel-
angelo's _David_ in the foyer, and millenia of young beardless
ephebes.  In such a milieu of shared assumptions, and heavy with
the institutionalized taste of centuries, why shouldn't there be
a discordant note sounded from those who feel marginalized?
"Fine, if they'd only know when to shut up."  Right.  This should
sound familiar as well.

I am happy when everyone expresses an opinion, including when
people like George and BBC do as well.  That's not to say that
inconsistencies shouldn't be pointed out (Steve Arrants's comments
on BBC's reaction to MM if he were bearded and covered with fur
is a case in point.)


-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer