People regularly tell me about the homophobic rants on “Dennis & Callahan,” on WEEI Radio (AM 850), but I rarely catch them in the act during the two- or three-minute increments in which I listen to them. I only stay when they’re actually talking about sports.
So let me pass along the BC Heights’ account of their loathsome shtick from earlier this week. As Adam Gaffin puts it: “I’d almost think Dennis and Callahan are closeted but … That would be an insult to gay men.”
*Update and correction: WEEI is so proud of the segment that it put the audio online. As it turns out, Gerry Callahan was out sick that day.
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I think it’s an overreaction to call this homophobia.They never once attacked gay people for being gay… and it was clear from a number of things they said that it didn’t matter to them if they were gay or not.They were making fun of how ridiculous it is to label everything sociologically. The point of the segment centered around why is a “bromance” different than just being friends with someone. It’s trendy to call it a bromance. And I would agree that that sort of label on a friendship is stupid.
I agree with Mark. The knuckleheads are riffing on “bromances”–straight men hanging out on “man-dates”, eating ice cream together, taking long walks on the beach at sunset, etc. The schtick is, that straight men who are engaging in such stereotypical gay behavior should just admit they are gay. Nyuk nyuk!Big deal. It’s not homophobia, it’s just puerile. Don’t sling such accusations around so casually, it dilutes the meaning of the word. The BC editorial is just as bad or (to me anyway) worse. Such a predictably pompous and humorless response that it achieves self-parody. Seems like a perfect opportunity to exercise some wit. Go get em! But oh no, it’s only the usual somber taking of offense, expressing ever-so-appropriate “concern” in carefully measured politically-correct fashion, about the commentators “mocking the belief that women prefer men who…”, and the grievous “insult to BC students as a body…”. They dared to mock us! Good grief, my granny could pen a zippier response, and she’s dead. Self-important gasbags, they should be on the lookout for pie throwers.
So the reference to Dennis & Callahan and "their loathsome schtick," wasn't theirs at all? Priceless.Prior to her collapse, few here ever came close to agreeing with me that Caroline Kennedy sometimes Schlossberg was being anti-Semitic in distancing herself from the name Schlossberg after tacitly approving its use for 23+ years. The general reaction from others here was basically, "how dare you throw that term around so casually." Fast forward a month and Dennis, (sans Callahan) Felger and Meterparel are satirizing heterosexual men for some unusual behavior and the labels "loathsome" and "homophobia" are thrown around. So Caroline's obvious behavior wasn't, but Dennis, Felger and Meterparel's ambiguous behavior is. Double standard, anyone?
As usual, I’m not sure I understand a word of OFish’s response…
O-Fish: Did you actually read the posts before yours? Is anyone throwing around the term homophobia? No. In fact, everyone was agreeing that the radio piece was not homophobic. I happened to hear it and agree that it could have easily “gone there” but didn’t. I’m sure if Gerry were there it would have definitely had the potential being the small, bitter man that he usually is.Meanwhile, you continue to absolutely flog the deadest of horses regarding the supposedly anti-Semitic Caroline Kennedy. Even thought it was shown many times on this blog and on the web that she had used the last name “Kennedy” over and over again during her married life.Please, for the love of God, either get a life or let the bogus anti-Semitic rant end.
WEEI at this point is almost impossible to listen to, except for Dale and Holley. D&C do not talk sports at all and just spew their right-wing propaganda all morning. The Big Show is great except when Fred Smerlas is on, because he's a Callahan wannabe politically speaking. If I want to listen to that crap, I'll put on Howie Carr. When I go to WEEI, I want sports.
Fish-ing for consistency? How about this:Caroline Kennedy:Disorganized, unprepared. Charge of anti-Semitism uncalled for and ridiculous.Radio knuckleheads:Childish, back-of-the-classroom spitballers. Charge of homophobia uncalled for and ridiculous.The title of the blog entry is “Dennis, Callahan and homophobia”, which doesn’t make the accusation explicitly, it just hangs the word out there.The BC editorial timidly advances the accusation, without actually making it: It would be easy to classify the majority of the comments made as homophobic…Okay so, are you classifying them so? If so, say so. Make the accusation, or not. And the comments are “indicative of a lack of sensitivity”. Oh, heaven forfend!
Fish, each day your patrol takes you farther and farther out toward a distant frontier. Your silhouette is getting smaller.As for Dennis and Callahan, once they talked sports, now they talk trash to the 18 to 40 macho crowd. Controversy is their raw meat and I doubt that any of their listeners know what they really believe about anything. They’re paid to be outrageous, and so they are. And they will be until people stop listening and stop commenting.
I agree with Nile. The ideology police in the college newspaper are much more frightening than the behavior they are commenting on. Riffing on the concept of a “bromance” — stupid, unfunny, puerile? Sure. But the language does not harken back to Soviet era thought control, like the newspaper article.
By the way, when do we abandon the ridiculous word “homophobia” altogether? I have been around a lot of people in my life who make homosexual jokes of the infantile variety; a few who spew some semi-genuine vitriol towards homosexuals; and a great number of people who have nothing against homosexuals in particular but are against expanding the concept of marriage. I am yet to meet a person who had anything even resembling a “phobia” of gay people. This is a real dangerous perversion of the language. The term should be dropped.
Tunder, pardon me for interpreting the headline Dan created, “Dennis, Callahan* and homophobia” as someone throwing around the term, homophobia.Callahan wasn’t even there, forcing Dan’s update and correction. I respect Dan for that, but he should also correct homophobia in the headline. As others have noted, there was none.As for Caroline K.-S., I had long ago let it end, and I understand that you’d never want her hypocrisy to be exposed again. Then today, two non-liberals (one totally blameless) were accused of some faux bigotry by some of the same people who saw nothing odd about Caroline’s behavior. As for you telling me over and over that she’s never been Schlossberg, don’t get upset with me. I’m simply learning from the 2008 DNC. Six months ago, top Democrats thought that was her name of choice, why are you taking their “hatred” out on me?www.demconvention.com/caroline-kennedy-schlossberg/
Hatred? Too strong a word. I leave that to racists, anti-Semites, etc. I would go with annoyed, irritated – words to that effect. When I mentioned that she used the name Kennedy “over and over again” I was not implying that she never used Scholssberg. Anyway who has followed her public life knows that is not the case.Anyway, I will leave you with your fantasy of Jewish children everywhere plaintively looking up that their parents and saying “Why, Mommy, why? Why does she sometimes use Kennedy instead of Schlossberg?”
Our kids have the same problem. They want to know why Mama sometimes uses her (Italian) maiden name instead of my (German) surname.Imagine the identity crisis they are going through, with Mama so blatantly anti-Aryan.Maybe Fish can help them out, too.