Now that there's no 11AP Exam looming over our heads, every single semi-pseudo-intelligent thought I've ever had has completely evaporated from my head. There's just nothing left up here.
But, alas, I'll try to conjure something up.
Oscar Wilde, after being sentenced to a work prison for two years, developed many related illnesses that eventually caused his death at 46. I was talking to my mother about this, and she said, "yeah, unfortunately Oscar Wilde was gay during a time that society really punished him for it."
Which, yeah, I imagine that the 1890s weren't the best time to be not straight, white, and male. But in the 1920s, when F. Scott Fitzgerald was in a rumored relationship with Hemmingway, society didn't accept that either. When Alan Turing literally saved 21 million lives during World War II, didn't society force him to undergo conversion therapy and eventually commit suicide? Didn't Gov. DeSantis sign the Don't Say Gay Bill ... two months ago? There doesn’t seem to be a great time for Oscar Wilde to be gay. It doesn't look like much has changed since the 1890s, to be honest.
We could shake our heads solemnly and pretend to be removed from the anti-gay parts of our history, but the larger discussion to be had here is that Oscar Wilde dating Lord Alfred affects literally nobody but them. And instead of allowing Wilde to continue writing (and probably creating some more future classics), the government threw him in a jail cell and forced him to do manual labor until he died a premature death.
With pride month rapidly approaching, I guess I
just hope that one day, we can abandon this homophobic mentality and just let
people do what they want with their own lives. It’s really not that deep.
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| Happy (Almost) Pride :) |
Deepti, I am not joking when I say that I teared up reading your post. I know this wasn't your intention, but your message throughout your blog is so pertinent to our times. So many people struggle with the prospect of loving who they want to love. Though, according to some people, being gay isn't "biologically correct", who are they to judge? Someone loving another person of the same sex isn't a crime, and it obviously wasn't until Victorian times. I really hope some day we will be able to live in a world where loving isn't considered treason.
ReplyDeleteI also teared up. This is very important I think.
ReplyDeleteDeepti, I greatly appreciated this blog post and the focus in this blog post. Too little change is happening too slowly. Too many lives are being lost over matters that have frustratingly simple solutions - society needs to be more acceptive of others. Many social issues and taboo topics (such as sexual orientation, gender identity, racism, sexism, etc.) seem to have a similar pattern of being "shoved under the rug".
ReplyDelete