david55

I am curious if anyone else who subscribes to OUT magazine and got the Traveler supplement this issue of your reaction to a letter written to the editor about a perceived insult from the cruise director during a playful skit. Although this is out of context the jist of the "insult" happened when a passenger touched the back of the cruise director who turned around and said....

" Watch out Liberace. This is a cruise ship, not a fairy boat"

The offended couple ( who were in the audience) where so mortified they had to retreat to their suite. They demanded a written apology from the C.D. which they didn't get (only an oral one) but went on in this rather long letter bashing Royal Caribbean and nursing their "pride".....

My reaction: Get a life.... it was just a joke and in the spirit of fun....it probably is a scripted line he says on all cruises....If it was a gay cruise it probabaly would have gotten howls of laughter....

djjaguar64

After all it was a cruise ship, and Liberace was trying his "hand" at cruising, can you blame him for that ?

bo94114

Get over it! This P.C. stuff is enough to drive anyone crazy.

I just got back from Phillip Island where they renamed the "Fairy" Penguins "Little" Penguins because some boys got their panties in a bind.

Note from here: the Womens Motorcycle contingent also known as the "D on Bikes" can not copyright the name "D on Bikes" because some D find it to be offensive (along with the patent office).

Someone is always going to be upset no matter what you say or do.

fwfdan

Only acceptable if it WAS a gay cruise.

I actually think it is way out of line. And if it was scripted, even worse.

david55

I have to admit that when I told my partner this story after I had posted... he too thought it was out of line...

anonplz

Just on the surface of what the OP has posted, while I understand why some think it's an overreaction, I personally think it could be considered offensive. The underlying belief around which the humor lies (and which it reinforces) is, "you gays don't belong here," or "you gays should stay in the closet". Personally, I consider words like "fairy" or "queer" to be like the N word - don't use it to refer to me unless you are also gay. ESPECIALLY not in front of a group of strangers who I am likely to see later on.

Just my unimportant $0.02.

GoldFlyer

Isn't this a double standard to use derogatory slang amongst our own but expect straights to conform to the pc terms? With so many terms out there used to describe us, it's hard to keep up with the fashion of the day. For a while it seemed everyone (not me) wanted to be known as queer now it seems to have lost its appeal.

abcedaria

Actually they weren't renamed. The name generally used is Little penguin, of which there are two subspecies, the white flippered and the blue flippered. For as long as I've been alive the penguins have been called both fairy and little blue.

Mind you...things do seem to be renamed to suit the audience. I remember when living in Hawaii I got into an argument with a bird keeper telling me that a galah was only known as a rose breasted cockatoo. I was torn between calling her a galah, and several other choice words. Certainly not a fairy though.

david55

I am not sure the cruise director wasn't one of us... aren't they all gay?

izzik

context: discourse that surrounds a language unit and helps to determine its interpretation

sushibear

Out of line. A cruise director on a major cruise line should know better. Their principal job is to not offend passengers. I read the letter and was offended. There are plenty of ways to get a laugh. That remark was not an acceptable one. If he had made a crude joke with racial overtones, he would have been off the ship at the next port. RCC should have done more. Unless there is a followup from them in the next issue of OUT, I won't set foot on one of their ships and would discourage others from doing so.

anonplz

^

easygoingeezer

I think its out of order if the said people were used as a cheap laugh for the rest of the pax, str8s and Gays should be able to do the same things without
having to worry about being singled out for ridicule and paying for the privilage.


I must add that strolling around a str8 environment in stillies and sequins might be askin for trouble though,lol

bayotter

That remark was absolutely out of line. It's the same style of joke that has been told for years to make fun of us. I would have been furiuos and walked out too. It always comes in 2-parts: some implication about gay-touching (or often gay sex), and that it is not welcome. There is also often a reference to a "known" famous gay person. Here it was Liberace, but I have also heard references to Rock Hudson in the past. It's the type of joke that gets a real laugh from the homophobes who are laughing at us, not with us. I can assure you, that line would have made no sense if used on a gay cruise. The difference is whether people are laughing at us, or with us.

Why is it that (mostly, but unfortunately not always) the people who complain most about political correctness are not the ones who have suffered through their life being put down or made fun of? I for one am sick of (or maybe I should say feel sorry for) self-loathing gay people who think it's OK these days to be laughed at in a public venue.

And shame on Royal Caribbean.

alanw

What a crybaby.