Edition #17
Rio de Janeiro, 2011
“DKANDLE weaves swirling multi-colored vibrant unearthly soundscapes, blending fuzzy and reverberating Shoegaze textures, mesmerizing Dream Pop meditations, sludgy Grungey tones and moody Post-punk strains, heightened with soul-stirring lyricism and pensive emotive vocalizations”
I usually don’t watch soap operas, but a few days ago, I was at my parents' house, and they had the TV on, and I happened to catch the ending of Insensato Coração (Irrational Heart), a soap opera by Rede Globo, where there was a scene of a gay wedding. I watched it out of curiosity, thinking that finally, Rede Globo would show a gay kiss. After all, if they were showing a wedding, there had to be a kiss, at least a little peck, right? It would be natural, since it was a wedding scene. However, the grooms got married officially and... there was no kiss between them at their own wedding! Seriously... Let me repeat: THE GROOMS DID NOT KISS AT THEIR OWN WEDDING!!! And here’s the kicker: the grooms kissed the guests after the wedding, but a kiss between them? Nothing… (?!?) Can we call this hypocrisy?
Actually, few people did. Most were shocked and asked, "Was that a wedding between men?? This is the end of the world! This country is doomed! We’re becoming Sodom and Gomorrah!"… However, this is the current reality in Brazil: same-sex couples can have a civil union, the world didn’t end, and Brazil hasn’t turned into Sodom and Gomorrah because of it. So, OK, the soap opera fulfilled its role of trying to open people's minds and help them move forward by accepting that society is evolving, right? More or less... Something still wasn’t right. It bothered me deeply that the wedding scene didn’t have a kiss. The reluctance to show a gay kiss still lingers. And that’s why I wanted to understand why Rede Globo is so resistant to showing a gay kiss. (EDIT 2024: In January 2014, the first gay kiss aired on Rede Globo, in the soap opera Amor à Vida (Trail of Lies). Other kisses have since followed in other soap operas.)
Brazil is still square and macho; there's no topless sunbathing on the beach... There is still a heteronormative mindset, where the system revolves around the Straight-White-Christian-Man, where everything else is secondary and serves to maintain the dominant structure. Anything that threatens this status quo is violently repressed. That’s why there’s no topless sunbathing on Brazilian public beaches. And it’s also why we see more and more manifestations of homophobia. The straight Christian man feels his position threatened and doesn’t want things to change because they already work to make his life easier. He feels uncomfortable with the growing visibility of gay people and hates the idea of a more colorful future, as he has always operated within neutral, military colors. The biggest example of the Straight-White-Christian-Man is Bolsonaro, who has many supporters and was not elected by chance. The prevailing mentality in Brazil is the one he preaches, which finds fertile ground among the people, who are mostly conservative and macho.
The media has discovered a gold mine: this emerging middle class without a strong cultural background. These people, mostly Christians, actually DO NOT WANT to be well-fed culturally. To our astonishment, they are even thankful for the garbage they receive! They "thank God" for their comfortable house with a giant plasma TV.
It doesn't help that Brazil is the only BRIC country that doesn’t invest in education. Brazilians are submerged in a sea of alienation and don’t even know what’s happening; what really matters to them is finding out the end of the soap opera. Oh, I forgot… it's because they had a tiring day at work and want to have some relaxing time at home – or so say those who justify the massification. But the fact that people want to relax at home doesn’t justify such poor TV programming. But it's intentional!
NO PROBLEM BEING FLAMBOYANT IN TV...
For some gay and pro-minority activists, it may even seem that the situation today is better than it was a few years ago. There has been greater visibility and more achievements, such as the recognition of same-sex civil unions, for example. But the majority of Brazilians are still against these things “that go outside the norm”. Because anything that doesn't conform to the prevailing morals is frightening, and often even opposed, for fear of bringing chaos to society. At the heart of all this is the Christian religion, which doesn't accept anything that doesn't follow its precepts.
The evangelical Rede Record, then, is no exception... Of course, their soap operas don't show gay kisses. They're even more reactionary and hypocritical. MTV has shown gay kisses more than once. But it was to be expected that they wouldn't be so old-fashioned, and besides, their reach is much smaller, so those kisses were seen by a very restricted audience. SBT has even shown two women kissing in its soap operas, but this doesn't scare people, on the contrary: Brazil being a macho society, it's even encouraged to show this. But Globo is still the most powerful network, it represents Catholics, who make up more than 70% of the population, so its influence is still enormous. Everyone knows that the Catholic Church is the biggest enemy of homosexuals. They absolutely do not accept that two men can start a family, because for them, only a man and a woman have that right. They forget that families often consist only of father and son, aunt and niece, cousin and cousin, etc.
We are now living in a time when we see many rights being recognized for gay people around the world. I understand that the scene in the final chapter where two gay characters get married is a reflection of this change. The author wanted to show Brazil that this is now possible. OK, that's all very informative, but... Why the hell didn't the gay characters kiss at their own wedding? Why is this scene so demonized by Rede Globo that they have never, in their history, shown two men kissing so far?
I remembered the movie Cinema Paradiso, where there was a priest who watched all the movies that were going to be shown in the cinema, and censored all the scenes that showed kissing. That's exactly what still happens: we've progressed to the point where kisses between men and women are widely shown on TV, and it would be ridiculous for this to be censored today, but we're still in the Middle Ages when it comes to showing a gay kiss. It's cut from the scene - it's “forbidden love”. But since love is an act that can only come from God, how can it be forbidden? Who are these religious people to institute what can and cannot be love?
Globo didn't show this in the soap opera because the gay kiss is the greatest symbol that there can be affection between two men, but this is unacceptable for practicing Christians. Just as Rede Record belongs to Bishop Edir Macedo, Rede Globo has its tail tied to the Catholic Bishop. For Globo not to show a gay kiss, something so harmless but so demeaning to the religious dogmatist, it can only be for fear of displeasing the Bishop. It's become a matter of honor for the Church that this scene isn't shown on Globo's soap opera. It's like a demonstration of who's in charge, they're the ones with the power here, and they - in order to maintain their establishment - won't accept anything that threatens their position, and the gay kiss... That's a fucking nuisance!
Even when it's shown on TV, the gay kiss will continue to be opposed. Why? Simple: the gay kiss is a symbol of the destruction of Christian dogma. That's because kissing, when it's between two people who love each other, is a divine act. The argument is this: God is Love, so loving is a divine act. It doesn't matter what sex you are. For God, that's the least of it. Loving is ALWAYS a manifestation of God's will.
One day, and I hope it's not far off, the Church will have to come clean and admit that not only straight people can be elected. They will feel ashamed of themselves in the same way that they apologized for the Inquisition, for denying homosexuals access to the gates of Paradise. If God is Love, all Christian anti-homosexual theories are wrong. A very serious error taken as edifying morality.
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Take care of your business, mind you?
