Some people are extremists in their point of view while condemning others who have different opinions. One reason for this scenario could be because of age differences and past experiences. People should be able to put their discrepancies apart and put themselves in other people’s shoes before jumping to conclusions.
Mike was watching the last part of an Italian Mafia series the other day, and near the end two guys started romantically kissing. His gut reaction was, “Yuck!”
Then when it occurred and his daughter was sitting next to him on the sofa, eating her breakfast, he exclaimed, “Yuck! That’s not normal.”
She crucified him, calling him racist! Racism did not enter his thought process because he wasn't.
Growing up as a teenager, in the seventies, gayness wasn’t mainstream. In fact, if mentioned, boys in his all-boys school either shied away from it, or said that’s disgusting. In other words, it was frowned upon.
The thing is Mike is heterosexual so it took a while to accept that some men like men intimately. This was way before gay marriages were approved in many countries. Incidentally, the first same-sex marriage took place in the Netherlands in 2001.
Nevertheless, he understood and accepted the same sex desires, but like a disliked dish he still felt uncomfortable seeing it, especially live or in movies. He felt that this type of behaviour, although accepted worldwide, or in most countries should be behind closed curtains.
Obviously, he understood it was between each person’s desire, and couldn’t dictate when and where. Nevertheless, like smelling raw herrings which made him feel queasy, when it was in front of him, he felt somewhat woozy.
Perhaps he should have accepted it unequivocally which he did, however he couldn’t avoid his automatic gut reaction every time he saw it. He wasn’t a racist, though his set values must have influenced him time and time again.
The bottom line is he didn’t like to see it even though nowadays it was considered normal.
Have a great day!
Prof. Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
Yuck (idiom) = used to express strong distaste or disgust. “Raw herrings! Yuck!”
Mainstream (adj) = normal, typical, conventional, ordinary, majority, vanilla, middle-of-the-road, (ant) unconventional
Shied away (phrasal verb) = If you shy away from doing something, you avoid doing it, often because you are afraid or not confident enough. As a verb shy / shied (past tense) means cautious, wary, nervous, afraid, fearful, reluctant, (ant) confident
frowned upon frowned on/upon; frowning on/upon; frowns on/upon: to disapprove of (something) The company frowns on dating among employees. Public expressions of affection are frowned upon in many cultures.
Queasy (adj) = nauseous, seasick, unsettled, odd, groggy, woozy, sick, ill, (ant) well
Woozy (adj) = dizzy, faint, light-headed, unsteady, nauseous, (ant) clearheaded
Unequivocally (adv) = clearly, plainly, unmistakable, explicitly, indisputably, undeniably, (ant) unclearly