Time to put aside an hour on your Tuesday nights as The Spin Forums hit the airwaves for 2009. On the last Tuesday of each month (or thereabouts) we will devote an entire hour to a single topic. A lot of the topics will be issues that don't get a lot of press or time on air. And some of the topics are ones we choose not to discuss. Some 'taboo'. Well nothing is taboo on The Spin. Both JOY's outstanding new studios will be utilised to get the maximum number of voices to address each topic. Your comments will also be welcomed.
Be prepared to be challenged. The last Tuesday of each month on The Spin . 7 - 8pm.
Tuesday, January 27 - 'Program JOY for a day'
Are we providing what our community wants to hear? The challenges of programming Australia's only gay & lesbian station (or should that be GLBTI... and Q???)
Tuesday, February 24 - 'No Asians please'
Sexual racism in the community. Are WE the worst offenders? Heaven forbid if you're not a white, anglo-saxon, buffed boy in Prahran!
Tuesday, March 31 - 'The pink season'
Too many events? Too predictable? Too clichéd? What works? What needs a rest? What do our events say to the wider community about us? Midsumma, Mardi Gras, Pride, Chill-out, blah, blah.
Tuesday, April 28 - 'The beat goes on'
Love them or hate them, 'beats' are a part of the gay culture in Australia. The vexed issues of violence, public spaces and indulgence. And did you hear about lesbian beat sex?
Tuesday, May 26 - 'GLBTIQ is so PC'
Typecasting, hatespeech, political over-correctness and who the hell we are. Identifying our 'community' and what we stand for in 2009.
Tuesday, June 30 - 'I have a dream'
Look how far we have come.... and where to now? Education v's legislation. The generation gap in our community.
You can always sms JOY on 0427 JOY 949 or email us live on air.... onair@joy.org.au. It's your program so share your views on all the topics.
Maybe you have a topic you would like to discuss on The Spin Forums. Just drop us a line on this blog and we'll be in contact.
Showing posts with label GLBTI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GLBTI. Show all posts
Monday, January 19, 2009
Thursday, November 13, 2008
CLICHÉS DRIVE ME UP THE WALL
Do you have to be a card carrying member of the Labor Party to be a part of the GLBTI community? Do you have to be a feminist socialist to be a lesbian? Do you have to be a buffed, drug-taking partyboy to be young and gay?Clichés, most of them invented by our own community, have beset wider impressions of the GLBTI community for years. The media repeat them and we get upset.
Of course the wider GLBTI community are as broad and diverse as the rest of the Australian community. There's accountants, school teachers, tradespeople, business-people and truckies.... as well as hairdressers and people in musical theatre.
On JOY we have a fairly broad cross-section of the local GLBTI world. A bit of this and a bit of that. Politically we have people on the far right as well as the far left. And just because your sexuality may be G or L or B or T or I doesn't mean that you vote one way or the other.
Why do we have these stereotypes within our own community. Indeed, why do we have a lack of tolerance to people of diverse political views?
Come and join a few card carrying lefties as well as a guest right wing of Gengis Kahn, as well as someone somewhere in the middle on next Tuesday's Spin from 7pm.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
THE MATTHEW MITCHAM PHENOMENON - Editorial
Let's look at the Matthew Mitcham phenomenon. To me, this is less of a GLBTI story and more of a general media story. I can't help imagining the way this story would have been treated by the general media 20 years ago, maybe even ten years ago. I am thinking that the 'G' word simply wouldn't have been mentioned but he would just be another golden boy done good in the four-yearly sportsfest. The photos of him and his partner wouldn't have appeared and the news reports would have carefully edited out any footage including embraces and kisses. That was the way back then.
The pink rags of the time would have gone hell-for-leather screaming that the media had ignored the fact that the guy was gay and complained about discrimination in the media.
Seems the tables have turned a bit. This time, in Australia anyway, the media has mentioned, simply in passing, the fact that Matthew is openly gay and that his partner was there to cheer him on. No fanfare... just basic reporting. On the TV, same thing. Footage of Matthew thanking his partner and mum... no editing, just matter-of-fact reporting. On the other hand the gay press have been singing his praises in front page splurges beating up the fact that here was an openly gay athlete performing at the very peak of his sport. MCV screams 'Australia's Golden Boy'. BNews followed with 'Mitcham wins Gold'. In their case, they failed to mention the other 45 Australian gold medalists at all.
In the same way that the Americans seem ready to elect an African-American to their highest post, it seems that much of the Australian media has matured to a situation where being gay is just not an issue any more. SMH journalist, Jessica Halloran, wrote a column last week headlined 'Out and Out Champion Celebrates' and did a behind-the-scenes look at the people behind Matthew Mitcham's success. Just like any other look behind any other athlete... it was all so normal. Another article by Ryan Heath titled 'A win for Australia - and gay athletes everywhere' took a media naval gaze at it's treatment of this sort of story in the past. All good stuff.
Seems that, at last, being gay has become boring and that's just the way we want it, surely. Even Joanna Griggs, in a face-to-face interview the following day with Matthew casually brought his partner into the conversation. It was just so perfectly normal.
But in the US it wasn't quite the same in the big media. Outsports.com expressed concern that NBC ignored Mitcham’s sexuality. The diver, who bounced back from a lackluster performance earlier in the week to win a gold medal for the 10-meter, is the only openly gay male athlete at this year’s Olympics.
“If he had had cancer, or if his parents had been killed in a car crash when he was 2, or if he had just proposed to his girlfriend, they would have mentioned it,” an article on the sports website read. “But they never showed him hugging his boyfriend, never mentioned it.”
Seems that the Australian media are leaving the US behind in the issue of a maturing media and the reporting of GLBTI issues.
The pink rags of the time would have gone hell-for-leather screaming that the media had ignored the fact that the guy was gay and complained about discrimination in the media.
Seems the tables have turned a bit. This time, in Australia anyway, the media has mentioned, simply in passing, the fact that Matthew is openly gay and that his partner was there to cheer him on. No fanfare... just basic reporting. On the TV, same thing. Footage of Matthew thanking his partner and mum... no editing, just matter-of-fact reporting. On the other hand the gay press have been singing his praises in front page splurges beating up the fact that here was an openly gay athlete performing at the very peak of his sport. MCV screams 'Australia's Golden Boy'. BNews followed with 'Mitcham wins Gold'. In their case, they failed to mention the other 45 Australian gold medalists at all.
In the same way that the Americans seem ready to elect an African-American to their highest post, it seems that much of the Australian media has matured to a situation where being gay is just not an issue any more. SMH journalist, Jessica Halloran, wrote a column last week headlined 'Out and Out Champion Celebrates' and did a behind-the-scenes look at the people behind Matthew Mitcham's success. Just like any other look behind any other athlete... it was all so normal. Another article by Ryan Heath titled 'A win for Australia - and gay athletes everywhere' took a media naval gaze at it's treatment of this sort of story in the past. All good stuff.
Seems that, at last, being gay has become boring and that's just the way we want it, surely. Even Joanna Griggs, in a face-to-face interview the following day with Matthew casually brought his partner into the conversation. It was just so perfectly normal.
But in the US it wasn't quite the same in the big media. Outsports.com expressed concern that NBC ignored Mitcham’s sexuality. The diver, who bounced back from a lackluster performance earlier in the week to win a gold medal for the 10-meter, is the only openly gay male athlete at this year’s Olympics.
“If he had had cancer, or if his parents had been killed in a car crash when he was 2, or if he had just proposed to his girlfriend, they would have mentioned it,” an article on the sports website read. “But they never showed him hugging his boyfriend, never mentioned it.”
Seems that the Australian media are leaving the US behind in the issue of a maturing media and the reporting of GLBTI issues.
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