And I like looking a little bit like a
cowboy.
I think everyone should aspire to be one.
As a wee boy I thought cowboys were cool. They were rugged, tough and everything
someone living in a council estate in Scotland wasn't. My opinion on this hasn’t
changed much over the years. Cowboys were cool in the 70s and they still are
today.
So whenever I dress in my brown shoes and
jeans I tend to walk a little bit taller and with a little bit of a sore arse swagger.
The problem is I’m not a cowboy and never
will be.
It’s one of those depressing realities of
life. I have as much chance of being a proper, bona fide cowboy as I have of becoming
an astronaut, scoring the winning world cup goal for Scotland or being a rock
star. At one point in my life all of these career options were potential
choices for me. That was until I learned that I am short sighted, am not really
that good at football and I cant sing.
I also have a very annoying allergy to
horses.
I work in Finance but this doesn’t stop me
pretending every so often I am Jimmy Stewart or Clint Eastwood. It’s a
compromise I have learned to live with.
Arseless chaps are wrong.
I can’t think of anything more ridiculous
than a grown man wearing leather chaps with his bare arse hanging out.
Now, thankfully I live in a country where
the odds of me bumping into a trans-whatever person in the street wearing such
things are slim to anorexic but still, I’ve been to San Francisco.
Stop wearing them please, leave them to the
proper cowboys and put them back in your closet where they, and a lot of other
things probably, belong.
Being different is ok though.
Thankfully in todays society being somewhat
left or right of center is tolerated and sometimes even celebrated. Minority
groups all over the place live out their lives with very little fear of
discrimination, persecution or other such things which have been left behind in the historical waste bin.
It’s allowed and society is reasonably
happy to accept you for what you are or the lifestyle you choose.
Why is it though that some minority groups
seem to be able to punch well above their weight when it comes to making noise
or complaining about one such thing or the other?
Gay marriage is a good example.
Last month in the UK parliament spent hours discussing
whether or not to legalise gay marriage. Which you would think on the face of
it is a good thing. Same sex couples should be able to enjoy the same rights as
everyone else, right? Of course they should.
But they already have the same rights.
Its
called civil partnerships and this offers same sex couples exactly the same
rights as married people.
So what exactly were parliament discussing
at length then?
Well as far as I can ascertain, they were
discussing the name and the location of the ceremony - i.e. in a church or not.
This is about the point I start getting
annoyed. The discrimination piece has been dealt with and now we are discussing a
word, really? Are there not more important things to be getting on with like putting out the raging fire of two wars or fixing some serious economic issues perhaps?
Like it or not, we live in a democracy and
in that democracy there are minority groups which need protecting but there is also a large majority who are allowed to have a say. I don’t know the
opinion of the majority but given the heated debates I have to guess they might
be opposed to it for say, religious reasons.
This group of people’s beliefs are
every bit important as a minority groups, however inconvenient that might be.
Are we really just arguing about this? I
did try to understand the debate but kept coming back to nothing more substantial.
Are we now at the point where there is so
little to campaign about we are now marching through the streets for
something as minor as this?
I accept there will be some people who want to celebrate their love for their partner in a church and call themselves married but really how many are there and is it really worth this?
Surely there must come a point when most of the important prejudices/injustices have been eliminated. The time for us all to live in
harmony side by side on a keyboard. Surely then people should just stop
complaining?
The status quo now isn’t that bad, really
its not.
Could it be, and its just an idea, that if
you spend your life demonstrating and campaigning then its hard to stop, even when there really
isn’t anything to complain about. Like the various impotent unions which are
scrabbling and shouting about nothing in a desperate attempt to earn some legitimacy long after it has gone.
I'm no psychologist but perhaps wearing arseless chaps isn’t just an
expression of who the man is. Perhaps the man mincing down the road also loves the
attention, he loves it when people stop to point and stare. He wants something
to complain about, something to fight against. He wants to be different but with the acceptance he is fighting for comes normality.
It’s a catch 22 situation.
Anyway that’s just my heterosexual conservative
opinion, nothing more and I'm probably wrong. It wont be the first time.
Mr Brokeback mountain man, feel free to
wear whatever it is you want. Dress up as a S&M Dalek for all I care. Just
do it somewhere private please. I know you crave the attention but trust me the
vast majority of the population think you look silly and quite frankly you are
frightening the kids.
Also stop shoving your public displays down
my throat please.
I will most likely gag and then use highly
offensive and prejudicial terms as I tell you what I and the majority of the
population really think of your wardrobe choices.
Thanks.
