InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "your beliefs are mere fiction"

jam_jam (jam_jam) wrote in originalslash,
@ 2008-07-08 15:11:00

Current mood:

curious

Reactions
Not sure anyone is still paying attention to this community, but I thought I’d post an issue I’ve been working on…

Essentially, a character’s mother has a fairly… odd reaction to her son telling her he’s gay. She has a stereotyped and bigoted view of homosexuality (her typical image of a gay male is a drugged-out, homeless, criminal degenerate with possible pedophilic or other disturbing tendencies, and who probably has AIDS), and because her son is none of these things, she immediately assumes that it’s just a confused phase. He tells her it’s not, and he has a boyfriend. She demands to know who seduced her son into such degradation. He tells her it’s not degradation, but does tell her who his boyfriend is. She’s about to go off on how they must have tricked him, and they’re likely a horrible person, and they’ll get him killed or tricked into prostitution and several other things, when the name makes its way through the bigotry. It’s a boy who’s been her son’s best friend for years, whom she sees as a Good Boy, knows well, and trusts to the point of practically seeing him as a second son.

I’m still ironing out the conversation after that, but her final conclusion is that, while she still thinks of other gays/bisexuals as degenerates, she thinks of her son and his boyfriend as, ‘not like that’ and ‘well, they’re different/respectable’ and whatnot, and anyone who says reacts negatively to them in front of her gets to deal with her repeated and heated insistence that her son and his boyfriend, ‘aren’t that sort at all.’

My question is, given her prejudice before, is this a plausible reaction? I think it works, but it occurred to me that I’ve never seen or heard anyone react like this, reality or fiction. As an additional mention, her bigotry is far more founded on squick and stereotypes about ‘normal = good, abnormal = bad, and one sort of abnormal probably means all sorts of other nasty things as well’ than on any really religious grounds.

Any input on how realistic/unrealistic it sounds?

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	witchdragon 2008-07-08 11:05 pm UTC (link)
	I think denial is a very powerful thing, and if the mom has been shone as wearing 'rose tinted glasses' already it should be very convincing. No one wants to think of some one they love as bad, and it is always easier to make them a victim or the exception instead of changing all your ideals. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	raerae 2008-07-09 09:40 am UTC (link)
	I love your icon. <3 (Reply to this) (Parent)

	seanlily 2008-07-09 05:16 am UTC (link)
	I think people sometimes have stereotypical views, but don't always apply that to the individual they know, somehow that individual is exempt from the negative views. (Reply to this)

	raerae 2008-07-09 09:39 am UTC (link)
	I certainly think it's possible. A lot of people I know hate something, but often have a friend who is somehow 'exempt' from the stereotypes they rail against. (Reply to this)

	maureenlycaon 2008-07-09 02:40 pm UTC (link)
	Agreed with the others -- particularly if, as you say, it's not so much on religious grounds as on cultural conditioning. People can make some weird mental contortions to keep their beliefs and their loved ones, too. (Reply to this)