The #GayTurtle project was created by Amnesty International and TBWA Istanbul to illustrate how homophobia and hate crimes are still a major problem in Turkey (and everywhere else.)
Utilizing sly humor and a small militia of hidden cameras, the below video features an aquarium worker informing shoppers that they’ve just chosen to purchase a “gay turtle.”
The reactions run the gamut. There’s cursing, uncomfortable silence, shock, and one customer who even responds, “Give me a normal, non-gay, standard turtle.”
Watch video of the sales exchanges below.
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H/t: LGBTQ Nation
Masc Pride
I don’t think this illustrates homophobia so much as it shows people want what’s popular or ideal. Is a guy with an expecting wife that says he’s wants a son automatically a misogynist? No, it’s very common for guys to want sons.
Masc Pride
*he
Stark
@Masc Pride: The name you have chosen to present yourself to the online world tells us everything we need to know about why you fail to understand why this is problematic. Continue living in your dreamscape of denial. Pay no attention to what’s actually happening in the real world. We’ll manage without you.
Mikah92
Animals are too intelligent for homophobia.
SnakeyJ
Maybe i’m too skeptical. I don’t believe it’s real. Maybe some customers are real, but i’m sure most are fake. How many people in a day want to buy a turtle? And none of them didn’t care? I think most people wouldn’t believe that turtles were gay, and would assume the guy was joking.
Magnus
@Masc Pride: Sure if they wanted to breed the turtles and buy a male and female but no one is saying they want to breed turtles. This comes from a man who has bred animals. The statements these people make and the revulsion they show comes from a place of ignorance and stupidity. Big surprise that such nonsensical inane comments come from someone called “mascpride”. I don’t believe in masculine or feminine pride, just being who you are and not being treated differently for it. You are a walking billboard for internalized homophobia. You know how in the Republican party, people who are too liberal on some issues are called RINOS… Republican in name only? To me you are a GINO or a BINO, Gay/Bisexual in name only. Who wants an odious pretentious individual such as yourself to be apart of their community regardless of if it is an identity community, an ideological community, or a gated community? I pity those who have to deal with you and your insufferable ignorance on a daily basis aka your “friends”.
Brian
This is fascinating because it proves what I’ve believed all along – ie that many consider male homosexuality to be an infectious illness. It’s extremely important to understand this because it confirms the somewhat politically incorrect view of male homosexuality that exists these days amongst both conservatives and liberals – ie that male homosexual desire is something that exists in all men despite them not admitting to it.
Alfred Kinsey found that, following interviews, 47% of all men admitted to being able to respond sexually to both men and women. This was at a time when male homosexuality was a criminal offense, so his figures are likely to have been underestimates if anything. It was also at a time when porn was virtually non-existent, and thus the bisexual double standard prevalent in porn had not yet affected how people perceive human sexuality.
Porn has effectively conveyed the notion that female bisexuality is common but male bisexuality isn’t. In fact, the opposite is true. Women, with their predominantly fake sexuality, are far more likely to pretend to be bisexual in order to titillate men – this phenomenon can be seen in porn where women are encouraged and rewarded to perform sexually with other women for the benefit of men.
In any case, this fear of gay turtles basically reflects the fear that straight-identifying men have of admitting to same-sex feelings, of their same-sex feelings being “exposed to the world”. One of the reasons they fear it is because it is resented by the women they date, and can affect their relationships with their wives and girlfriends on a very severe level.
Brian
Please note that the first paragraph of my post directly above should read as following (I made a mistake when I was typing it so please replace the first paragraph with the following):
This is fascinating because it proves what I’ve believed all along – ie that many consider male homosexuality to be an infectious illness. It’s extremely important to understand this because it refutes the politically correct view of male homosexuality that exists these days amongst both conservatives and liberals – ie that male homosexual desire is something that exists in a tiny percentage of men and cannot be spread from one man to another.
Brian
This is a favorite topic of mine because it fundamentally explains the presence of homophobia in men. Homophobia is a reaction to self, to unwanted feelings that can be successfully hidden until something occurs to make it impossible to keep the lid on them.
The idea that homosexuality can spread from one man to another is VERY common, particularly in women. Women have a great fear of the transmission of male homosexuality because it threatens her ability to “keep my man under control”. As a gender, women cannot cope with unbridled male sexuality towards other men.
From a young age, note how mothers subtly discourage their sons from doing things that might be considered to be feminine or “homosexual”.
Masc Pride
@Magnus: I know it’s really tough for you, but let’s try sticking to the topic at hand. I’ll try to make things clearer since you were unable to understand the first time. There are lots of flaws in this experiment. The supposed sexual orientation of animals people plan to purchase isn’t necessarily an indicator of how they feel about human sexuality. If the owner lets the customer know a turtle is female, is the customer a misogynist for declining in favor of a male turtle? This whole experiment is tantamount to a claiming a customer secretly hates black people because he or she specifically wants to purchase a dog with a light coat.
BTW, stupid and ignorant are the same thing, Einstein.
Masc Pride
@SnakeyJ: It does seem like a rather staged “teachable moment”.
dvlaries
Now try the same experiment in Texas, Kansas or Florida. Let’s find out how much more evolved we are than Turkey.