The New York Post got itself a new gay nemesis over the weekend. NY Times‘ perfume critic Chandler Burr doesn’t take too kindly to the tab-rag’s description of Out magazine.
In a blurb on Danny Fields‘ frivolous lawsuit against Out , Page Six describes the glossy as a “gay lifestyle mag”. Homo-journo Burr took offense and penned a note to the Posters. In his missive, Burr – whom the perpetually confused Post describes as “flamboyant” – writes,
Using the expression ‘gay lifestyle’ is not just idiotic, it’s empirically wrong. There is no ‘gay lifestyle.’ There’s homosexuality, the sexual orientation, and there’s heterosexuality, the sexual orientation. But ‘gay lifestyle’ is a purely political term with a purely political meaning, and it’s simply, factually inaccurate.
Burr’s right on the money with this one, although it’s difficult to think of another word to describe the homo-monthly. Even Out EIC Aaron Hicklin struggles with the semantics of it all. When asked by Page Six how he feels about the description, he says, “Out is a lifestyle magazine in the same way that Vanity Fair or GQ are lifestyle magazines, in our case with a gay readership.” The lifestyle ain’t gay, it’s simply the magazine’s genre.
One wonders, however, if there’s even use for the word “lifestyle”. Maybe it can just be called a gay magazine…
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daniel11211
get a grip Burr, it is a lifesyle mag. Oy, semantics
Gregg
I despise the Post but I think Burr is wrong on this one. There are women’s lifestyle mags. Men’s lifestyle mags. Out is a gay lifestyle mag – a lifestyle mag for gay people.
Alexa
Interestingly, my local Barnes & Noble agrees with Burr here. I picked up the latest edition of Out yesterday and it was in the current events section, not the lifestyle section (where I first checked.
I think he’s right, it’s the intent that matters, and the NY Post’s intent was not to call it a lifestyle magazine for gays but to use the term “gay lifestyle” politically.
urban bohemian
I really think Burr needs to get out more.
DavidDust
Some queens can be SO sensitive!
abelincoln
So can anyone who is defending the term “gay lifestyle” tell me exactly what is the “gay lifestyle”? I’d just like to know so that I can determine if I have one, being gay and all.
EdWoody
You’re pairing the words wrongly. We’re not claiming there’s a “gay lifestyle.” We’re claiming that Out is a “lifestyle mag” that’s aimed at gays.
Mr. B
What kind of journalist has never heard the term “lifestyle magazine?” It’s kind of hard to take any of his future writing seriously after this. Moron.
hisurfer
White Party Palm Springs. Bathhouses. Sydney Mardi Gras. IML. Lazy Bear Weekend. Paris is (or used to be) Burning. Atlantis Cruises. Pride Parades. Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. Southern Decadence. Castro, Chelsea, Darlo, Sitges, the Pines, Boystown, Saugatuck, Tawas, et al., ad infinitum.
Of course there’s a “gay lifestyle.”
Jon
What is a perfume critic? Am I missing something? Does he review perfume or is perfume some type of elite literary title that I’m unaware of? And…Hello…I agree with “hisurfer” there is totally a “gay lifestyle”. I don’t participate in any of the “gay lifestyle” activities like White Party, etc.(nor do any of the gay men I know), but that doesn’t mean the lifestyle doesn’t exist. Out totally encourages that type of lifestyle, so to act like it doesn’t exist is crazy.
Stenar
hisurfer, I’d be willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of gay people have never been to a circuit party, gay ghetto nor a bathhouse.
abelincoln
Saying there is a gay lifestyle is like saying there is a hetero lifestyle or a black lifestyle or a whoever you are lifestyle.
“Gay lifestyle” is used to demonize gay people. I’m sure when straight people use the term gay lifestyle all they think of is men fucking each other and dressing in drag and walking around lisping and limp-wristed.
Ask your local straight person what he or she thinks the gay lifestyle means to them.
I think there are multiple “lifestyles” that gay people as well as hetero people have.
hisurfer
“hisurfer, I’d be willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of gay people have never been to a circuit party, gay ghetto nor a bathhouse.” Of course not – and totally beside the point. What I was trying to show was that there are elements of gay culture that have little counterpoint in the straight world. It doesn’t mean that all of us do everything.
Look, I think that only total wankers refer to anything as a “lifestyle” – but it strikes me as a word marketers would use to sell product to the insecure, and not a word used to demonize us.