STR8 Bois Are Totes Hawt!!1!

A twitter friend sent out a link last week to a new FCKH8 campaign (you may rember their cathartic "it gets better" video), the STR8 Against H8 calendar. The basic idea is that this is a calendar featuring 13 self-professed heterosexual men who are "stripping down" to promote marriage equality. It's a calendar of guys who like women and also think marriage equality is important and who enjoy the attention of other men. Or at least "don't mind" when gay men appreciate them.

I looked at the site and watched the promo video that's on there (which is really just a behind the scenes showing more man flesh), and while the calendar certainly seems to well-produced and the intent of the project seems to be on the up-and-up ($3 per calendar goes to equality-minded organizations), I just can't shake the feeling that this is all a terribly bad idea and fairly demeaning to gay men.

The Queer Feminista

Maybe this is the feminist coming out in me, but I'm not so sure that fetishizing straight men is very healthy. Let me rephrase that: lusting after a man simply because he is straight is not healthy. Believing a man is attractive whether or not they are a particular sexual orientation is perfectly fine, but placing specific emphasis on a man's sexuality as the source of your lust is troubling.

I call this troubling because what it does it present straight men as something "Better Than" gay men, something to be idolized and prized as if the pursuit of vagina is the penultimate sexual activity. Can you see the problem there? If being straight, in and of itself, is hot, then being gay must be Something Other Than Hot.

So a group of gay men lifting straight men up as the epitome of hotness smacks of self-loathing to me. Self-loathing and a twisted inferiority complex.

I'm not saying finding a guy attractive that is straight is a bad thing. Many straight men are very attractive (see Ben Cohen). But finding a guy attractive because he is straight, or implicating that gay men cannot be as attractive as straight men, does very little to advocate a cause for equality.

But Is It Really Wrong?

All that said, there's nothing wrong with it, per se. If a person decides to purchase the calendar, more power to you. In the video it appeared that all the "straight men" photographed were pro-equality, which is a very good thing. And although I'm not a fan of the means, the end cause is a good one.

But I'd just like to put this out there: how can we as an LGBT community move forward if at the core of our beings we still don’t believe we are equal in every sense? If we believe that straight men are more attractive and worthy of praise for simply being part of the vast majority, how do we expect them to see us as anything other than adoring fans?