On The Subject of Effeminate Males

I had planned to watch “Paloh” over the weekend since I’ve heard a lot about this local film production through the local media and word of mouth. Unfortunately, when I woke up last Saturday I found myself in a fair amount of pain in my left ankle. It felt like I had sprained it but I could not remember how I would have done so. I had to wear an ankle brace for the whole weekend and until today I don’t really know how I would have sprained my ankle. I’ve never had this experience before so it is kind of unnerving. Anyway … the pain subsided by Monday and I was able to go to work ok. Still, I have some questions on how I could have sprained my ankle and not remember about it.

Another unsettling thing happened over the weekend. There have been more than a few reports in the printed media on the issue of effeminate males in our local universities. More than a few misguided individuals have suggested that there is a need for them to “butch” themselves up for the good of the country. Some have also suggested that the prevalence of effeminate males in universities will lead to an explosion of gay culture and the destruction of the institution of marriage no less. In their opinion, these groups will influence others who enter those universities to be like them though peer pressure and in the long term will contribute to the current moral decline in the country.

For starters, I find everything that have been written about this as pure bigoted bulls*it. It is easier to put a target on a group of people like the “fairies” in the local community than it is to solve other more important problems. As for effeminate men leading an explosion of gay culture in Malaysia, I think that they are a few years bit too late. For what I can personally attest to, not all effeminate males are gay and the opposite also holds true. I would imagine that if only the effeminate males are gays, I would surely have a big problem since I’m not attracted to them in the slightest bit. To be honest, drag queens actually scare the heck out of me.

As for these groups exerting peer pressure to other to become more like them, I find the idea ridiculous especially based on my own experiences when I was in secondary school and after that college. For one, they usually travel in highly exclusive cliques that hardly ever let anyone in unless they are similarly inclined. They don’t go around campus trying to covert anyone into their cause as suggested by these biased articles. If there is a higher visibility of this group of people in the local universities it must be because there are more of them coming out in the open. If so, one must wonder what happened to the so-called “butch” students after secondary school. Or is it just because the effeminate groups are now more visible with their successes that some people feel threatened by them.

Whatever the reason for the recent spotlight on effeminate males in the news lately, I still believe that it is just pure sensational reporting and a scapegoat hunt to deflect the people from other more pressing issue. I’m sure that this may escalate for awhile until people start losing interest and it becomes part of yesterday’s news. I just hope that until that happens, cooler heads will prevail.