Dear Oscar,

Maybe it’s me. Maybe I am a manic depressive, or some sort of easily identifiable misery guts, but even though I was successful in buying the gay magazine this time, I do not feel great now that I have it. It presents a gay paradise. One of the articles quite specifically talks about money, and how the big corporations have worked out that tolerance means profit, but I find that worrying, don’t you? There is no honesty and no integrity there; everything is dependent upon the vagaries of the market, and so any hope of politicisation is lost. 

All of the bigger corporations are straighter than straight can be, and you can bet that at the tables of the top boardrooms homophobia is rampant. The pink pound only generates a certain amount of money; it is not the same as trading in arms, or pharmaceuticals; they are richer pickings. It just worries me that gay men can be targeted very easily, that they can be miked for their money while the consumer express rushes ahead, but dropped just as easily should the need ever arise. 

You will know nothing of the world wars that dominated the twentieth century – the only real events that happened. Persecution of homosexuals ran alongside persecution of other minority groups, and control of the population at large was absolutely merciless. Dreadful times. People being killed. You were locked up and your life was in tatters because you were discovered; in the second world war thousands of gay people went to their deaths. 

Recently we have witnessed the treatment of prisoners in another battle zone (there are always battle zones, from your day to this), and a part of the ritual humiliation inflicted upon prisoners is gay related. If they are not gay then they have to act gay, be sexually assaulted, be ridiculed as effeminate;  if they are homosexual, well, you can imagine. It is frightening. It does not seem very far away. 

So that within the pages of the magazine the wild hedonism of holiday resorts, the fashion tips and the designer outfits, the pretty boys putting their bodies on display, all seem to be intermeshed with a legacy and a present day reality that are extremely disturbing. 

Of course it all keeps relating back to how men are, how men behave, how men interact with the world around them. 

These gay magazines are really exactly the same as their straight counterparts; masturbatory fantasy images of lifestyles and of people that the camera has rendered beautiful for an instant. You should see what has happened to photography;  now it trades in its own lies quite blatantly. We are presented with a false version of reality, and all sorts of consumable distractions proliferate to help us forget that outside of our tried and tested bubble of delight a real world is in operation, and it is one that exists in the realms of fear, of killing, of persecution. 

Oh, I am a little morose today – but who wouldn’t be? I was given a lukewarm cappuccino and a stale Danish pastry this morning, and overcharged for the privilege. 

Is it worth it?

My warmest regards,

Algernon B. Duffoure.