Thursday, August 26, 2010

Arousal

Coca-Cola Egypt recently released a "homoerotic" advertisement.

When you hear homoerotic, what are you thinking?

Maybe something like this?




Or maybe something more along the lines of...




Or even...





So when you hear about Egypt's "homoerotic" Coca-Cola ad, am I the only one that gets a little... excited?

Well here it is, folks, in all its homoerotic glory.





whu...uh...

that's it?

Just a hand-hold?
That's not erotic in the least.
It turns my Semi-Trailer Truck into a Comact Sedan.
Hell, only one of the guys is attractive!




(That chick looks pretty hot though...)

So why is this considered "Homoerotic"? Sure, its gay-themed, but homoerotic?

What? What do you mean it might not even be gay-themed?


You see, in the middle eastern areas, it's actually common and socially acceptable for grown, straight men to hold hands in public. Despite all the other well-known taboos in the middle-east, it's important to remember that they don't hold all of the same taboos that we do in the west. I read somewhere that the American Government was considering spreading a fake gay sex tape of Saddam Hussein in order to cause unrest in his government until finally someone let them know that no one would really care. Sure, gay-fuckin' is highly illegal there, but a sex tape like that just wouldn't mean anything. Same with this commercial - the guy is probably more bewildered that someone he didn't know took his hand than that person being a man.


Mostly, I'm just perturbed by the use of the word "Homoerotic." When we see a straight couple in a commercial, that doesn't make it Heteroerotic - it's just a straight couple. Calling unarousing things "homoerotic" demonizes the whole concept of homosexuality; saying that something as simple as brief hand holding can give us a raging boner is the same rhetoric being passed by the religious right, turning gays into sex-crazed beasts who eroticise even the most naive of intimate human interactions. It turns us into the group that people are afraid to share bathrooms with, the group that people are afraid to share an apartment complex with, and the group that people are afraid to share an office with, lest every glance, wave, or passing breath be sexually charged. It's just one more way to prove us part of "The Other".

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