One would hope that to be ranked second in command of a nuclear vessel...intelligence would be required. As a patriotic romantic idealist, I would hope this was a political statement. I have to realize because it was a series involved in 'on deck' movie night, that this was just their idea of fun and funny.
Is there even a question here?
In the shadow of gay acceptance into the military...the humor parodizes with homo innuendo and there is offense and the XO gets fired! [see another video and more on this link here]
The video here is short in comparison to the one I watched on Mother Jones (MoJo) website. The whole parody is about taking homosexuality on board in a nonchalant fashion. The uproar, of course, being that it came from the command entourage as an entertainment video prior to 'movie night'. Ranking officers were the stars in a poor attempt at Benny Hill type skit form. I was personally amused, but I am an age old weirdo! If it was done as a farewell to arms for the XO with the upcoming decommissioning of the USS Enterprise, I would see it as politically correct as stating their Navy way ideology as crudely as one with military experience would expect. I would also believe it to be considered a court martial offense. If you watch the MoJo video with people knocking on quarters for some sailor or whatever they call each other and find two same sex officers sharing the bed and racing to formation or duty, you think this is what could be. Did it look like offensive? What if they were opposing sex?
ReplyDeleteIf you even surf around the gay men community, you will see that overt sexuality is part of the culture. With the military, there is no public display of affection or sexual fraternization allowed. These sailors have all had to suffer at sea or sneak around either way. Blue ball release most likely an acceptance or your cliche sailor with a girl at every port.
I really don't think that the creators of the video had thought this out so deeply and are just plain crude. It does make me think that accepting homosexuality in the military will be quite the bumpy transition.
In a perfect world, I would like to see everyone just get along. A job should not include anything on what you do sexually or damn...a lot of the free love and culture people (you know who you are) would be screwed more than one way. LOL
Just my thought.