Good Vibrations Magazine

It’s hard work, I tell you, but part of my job entails scouring YouTube for sex-related videos. I like to see what’s out there, and what kind of information is making its way around the internet world. Unfortunately, some things I’ve come across lately are quite telling of the homophobia and hate that still exist in our society.

For instance, check out these comments that were left by YouTube patrons (all typos left intact):

“listen you fat ugly bitch, being gay is disgusting and a sin. so if you really want to go ahead and marry each other than go ahead and commit your mortal sins. have fun burning in hell with your fag spouse.”

And:

“I dont want to see 2 men kissing in public, nor would I want to explain why they are kissing to a small child. It is disgusting. How about a cross dresser as a public school teacher is that ok with you too? Some grown man walking around in heels and a dress, and by the end of the day his 5 oclock shadow is showing through his makeup. It is bizarre any way you slice it.”

That first comment was posted on this video in which a young, straight woman talks about a mock gay marriage that the straight-gay alliance hosted at her school to promote equality. She talks about acceptance and how marriage should be about love, not sexual orientation, and the separation of church and state. (Smart kid!)

The second comment was found on this video from equalmarriage.ca that was shown on Canadian television: In this video (part of a series of 3 that can be found here) two men lie in a bed sleeping, and one steals the blanket from the other one. Anyone in a relationship (gay or straight) will be able to relate to it.

The first video is presented with honesty and thoughtfulness. The second is subtle yet poignant. And both have been met with comments laced with hate and ignorance. Disappointing, isn’t it? Should we expect more from a public space where anyone can anonymously comment? I say yes, but that’s just me over here in my little sex-positive bubble.

On top of hateful comments, some users of YouTube have also made it a practice to flag videos with GLBT content as offensive, whether they are sexual in nature or not.

In a recent article by Ellen Seidler on the popular lesbian site afterellen.com, Seidler discusses the problems GLBT content and users face on YouTube:

Despite being a great resource for LGBT viewers, YouTube also offers these users constant reminders that lesbians and gays are not an entirely accepted part of American society, thanks to a feature known as “flagging.” As YouTube guidelines explain, “Some of the content here may offend you — if you find that it violates our Terms of Use, then click ‘Flag as Inappropriate’ under the video you’re watching to submit it for review by YouTube staff.”

And…

No one is quibbling with the notion that clips that are clearly pornographic or depict graphic violence should be flagged or even removed. The problem lies with clips being flagged simply because they contain “lesbian” content — content merely depicting lesbians just being lesbians. A happy scene of two lesbian characters dreaming about raising a child and discovering they are pregnant from If These Walls Could Talk 2 is flagged, but a mildly sexy, heterosexual kiss from the film The Notebook is not.

(Be sure to check out the article to read how the YouTube marketing manager responded to Seidler’s questions about flagging.)

DS, our resident web expert, elaborates:

Queer-themed videos are often ‘flagged’ even when the subject nature is very harmless and benevolent. I’ve seen it happen to music videos, PSAs and otherwise g-rated comedy. Videos with a lot of violence or celebrity-cleavage are not flagged as often. It’s also worthwhile to note that the third largest group on the service is ‘conservative youtubers’ (http://www.youtube.com/groups_main?b=users) right after ‘guitar’ and ‘bush sucks.’

Here’s the weird thing though — there is all this video flagging, harassing comments, distaste for videos, yet clips with LGBT themes remain incredibly popular. Sure, the internet is a huge resource to connect queers and can be an amazing outlet for teenagers and queer youth, but is that really what’s driving the volume? That’d be wonderful, but I have the suspicion that there’s more to it — the internet offers people a safe environment to learn and experiment in ways that they wouldn’t in the real world. Just think of email, people say all kinds of things in email that they’d never say in person.

Could it be because queers have always been at the forefront of performance and media? Are steaming conservatives trolling YouTube to flag LGBT videos… or are they finding an outlet for their secret homosexual tendencies online, and then feeling guilty — lashing out to preserve their image?

Good questions.

With GVTV, we’ve had to field some offensive comments ourselves. Comments that clearly demonstrate that sex and sex education still make some uncomfortable. Like this one:

“Sex Education? sex is somthing you can’t teach.this is porn!”

This comment was posted on the GVTV trailer.

Doesn’t make a lot of sense, but neither does someone repetitively commenting on a pro-gay marriage with rants about anal sex and blowjobs. Unless of course, they are obsessed with anal sex and blowjobs, hmmmmm.

One user, with the screen name usarmycaptainamerica revisited the video about gay marriage (the blanket stealer) so many times, I frankly got tired of counting. This was over the course of a few months. Apparently he had a lot of time on his hands, so much that he had time to think up such educated and well-spoken gems as:

“Are you comparing yourself to that of an animal? Say for instnce a dog that when they go into heat they might try and mount th eowners leg, an anmial that also eats their own feces?”

Hey, maybe they should offer spelling classes with tolerance classes in the Army, hm Captain?

We can dream of a day when everyone lives in harmony, and people can share videos with messages without being harassed by bigots, but until then, I’ll keep it in mind that if I were a video, a lot of people would flag me.

And I can take it, as long as the flag goes with my outfit.