March 14, 2007

Garrison Keillor Perpetuates Annoying Stereotypes

Garrison Keillor has always been a dick, no news there. If it didn't mean he'd just spend more time in New York, I'd be calling for Minnesotans to drop the nice and run him out of town once and for all.

But in his piece in Salon about how kids deserve to know the joys of a life-long, monogamous, straight family, the thrice-married Keillor trafficks in ridiculous, hurtful stereotypes that make me think someone in St. Paul needs to clear all theQueer Eye For The Straight Guy from his Tivo:

"The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men -- sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves. If they want to be accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to be brought under control. Parents are supposed to stand in back and not wear chartreuse pants and black polka-dot shirts. That's for the kids. It's their show."
I mean come on. No straight dad in his right might would think kids should wear chartreuse pants and black polka dot shirts. That hurts, man, that really hurts.

Stating the Obvious [salon via andy]

4 Comments

Mr. Keillor bemoans the passing of the good old days when "mixed gender" parents stood back and let their children take center stage. Yeah, sure. I wonder how his own son feels about the extraordinary sacrifices Garrison has made for his sake. I mean three marriages and various extra-marital affairs certainly qualify as stepping out of the limelight. And a monogamous gay couple's chartreuse pants are obviously more disruptive to a child's well-being than anything our Lake Wobegon boy has done. You're right, he's a dick.

no matter what the ugly man says, I believe he has tremendous talent.

Well, the guy is as old as Moses, but not as smart as he thinnks he is. I like PHC, but his soap box can be a little big and his retoric can be so very left leaning. He is "old school" and needs to run for office and get off his high horse. Maybe he could get on the ticket with Al Frankin???

Keillor has "apologized" and Dan Savage has an post suggesting that he may have inspired Keillor's rant. Links to both are here

[thanks. I heard Dan's reading on This American Life yesterday and thought about gay dads with small gay dogs. Savage lives up to his name in his criticism of Keillor. I cannot believe Keillor's apology/explanation, though, that he was being tongue-in-cheek and misjudged his delivery. As much as I don't like his schtick, he has a better talent for the perceptive, almost imperceptible nuance than almost any performer. Hapless tone-deafness is not a defense for someone who demonstrates near-perfect pitch every week. Also, titline his apology, "GK responds to queries on topics from childbearing to potato salad, with a little bookstore fetish in between." as if it's just one more silly little smalltown kerfluffle is kind of obnoxious. -ed.]

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