Lucia to Ricky Martin on... The Whole Gay Thing
MEMO: 11-24-00
TO: RICKY MARTIN, POP MUSIC IDOL
FROM: LUCIA TOLEDO, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
RE: THE GAY THING (SORRY!)
Ricky, honey, ya gotta stop fluffing the gay question the way you did again in Entertainment Weekly cover story. Granted, Jeff Gordinier's scrutiny-lite brand of journalism didn't make it hard for you to do so, but you gotta say either you are gay or you aren't. Your career is at stake. (And if you don't know what you are, that falls under, You're gay.)
If you are, Ricky, please remember that you're not Clinton. You can't say, OK, I lied but I'm still the most powerful man in the world. Your fans are eventually gonna decide that, Hey, he defiled love and his very soul by lying or at least misleading us about both of them, so how can we believe a word he sings? They're gonna say, I can't believe he didn't tell us first! See, it's not a penis thing, really. It's about truth and trust-- and I think you should be concerned about those things because, as an artist, that's where your power is.
Lemme give ya some advice. Don't keep thinking first about your fans. Most of them assume on some level that you're gay anyway, because science says that the only entertainers who don't answer the gay question, or bullshit around it with "What does it matter?" philosophizing, are gay. (Straight entertainers somehow never neglect to establish their straightness, even when delivering the same "What does it matter?" type stuff.) Try to think a little bit more about yourself, about how many spiritual and emotional resources you're sapping away from creativity (and your deeper happiness!) by maintaining that sanctimonious, shame-scented ambiguity.
The reason I'm telling you this is because I think you're a wonderful performer and I want to see you keep growing. I swear, if you're just another pretty boy who can't think things through, I'll be so disappointed. (Uh, question, if you are gay: Have you totally written off those larger opportunities for service to humanity that people like Ellen and Elton report lurk just beyond the shadows? You might wanna examine that-- because you seem like a well-meaning person who could maybe do something important if he got a bigger idea of what we're doing on the planet.)
Oh, and Ricky, you're only gonna make things worse if you hype this yoga thing too much, like you do in the EW piece. Correct me if I'm wrong, but yoga is about is about the connection between body and mind. It posits the body as a measure of truth, which is kinda the opposite of the message you've been sending by saying, What difference does it make if I'm gay." Think about it, OK?
(To tell ya the truth, I kinda hope you're not gay. Because if you are, after you come out the only guys who'll date you are the ones who don't care that you lied for so long, and I'll bet they're a pretty shabby lot....)
TO: RICKY MARTIN, POP MUSIC IDOL
FROM: LUCIA TOLEDO, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
RE: THE GAY THING (SORRY!)
Ricky, honey, ya gotta stop fluffing the gay question the way you did again in Entertainment Weekly cover story. Granted, Jeff Gordinier's scrutiny-lite brand of journalism didn't make it hard for you to do so, but you gotta say either you are gay or you aren't. Your career is at stake. (And if you don't know what you are, that falls under, You're gay.)
If you are, Ricky, please remember that you're not Clinton. You can't say, OK, I lied but I'm still the most powerful man in the world. Your fans are eventually gonna decide that, Hey, he defiled love and his very soul by lying or at least misleading us about both of them, so how can we believe a word he sings? They're gonna say, I can't believe he didn't tell us first! See, it's not a penis thing, really. It's about truth and trust-- and I think you should be concerned about those things because, as an artist, that's where your power is.
Lemme give ya some advice. Don't keep thinking first about your fans. Most of them assume on some level that you're gay anyway, because science says that the only entertainers who don't answer the gay question, or bullshit around it with "What does it matter?" philosophizing, are gay. (Straight entertainers somehow never neglect to establish their straightness, even when delivering the same "What does it matter?" type stuff.) Try to think a little bit more about yourself, about how many spiritual and emotional resources you're sapping away from creativity (and your deeper happiness!) by maintaining that sanctimonious, shame-scented ambiguity.
The reason I'm telling you this is because I think you're a wonderful performer and I want to see you keep growing. I swear, if you're just another pretty boy who can't think things through, I'll be so disappointed. (Uh, question, if you are gay: Have you totally written off those larger opportunities for service to humanity that people like Ellen and Elton report lurk just beyond the shadows? You might wanna examine that-- because you seem like a well-meaning person who could maybe do something important if he got a bigger idea of what we're doing on the planet.)
Oh, and Ricky, you're only gonna make things worse if you hype this yoga thing too much, like you do in the EW piece. Correct me if I'm wrong, but yoga is about is about the connection between body and mind. It posits the body as a measure of truth, which is kinda the opposite of the message you've been sending by saying, What difference does it make if I'm gay." Think about it, OK?
(To tell ya the truth, I kinda hope you're not gay. Because if you are, after you come out the only guys who'll date you are the ones who don't care that you lied for so long, and I'll bet they're a pretty shabby lot....)
posted by Lucia Toledo at 9:37 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home