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Tyler Clementi's suicide was a tragedy. Those two students that filmed him were voyeuristic pieces of shit. But I hate how everybody's acting as if this is an anti-gay issue. Seth Walsh's suicide was an anti-gay issue. He was bullied for being gay until he couldn't take it and hung himself. Tyler Clementi's story was a privacy issue, that just so happened to deal with homosexuality.
The two Rutgers students that filmed him were only taking part in a similar voyeurism that this whole country takes part in. So much of our culture is based on, "Ooh, did you hear what so and so did?" and "Did you see the pictures of blah bitty blah?" and "I bet Tom Cruise is gay." We do this shit all the time. And how dare the shitty media paint these two Rutgers students to be villains when the news pulls the same shit all the time. If the news had found a video of Tom Cruise kissing another man, that shit would spread like wildfire. "Ooh, look we got him! We outed Tom Cruise, tee-hee-hee!" But that's an invasion of privacy that we're comfortable with. It'd be hypocrisy in its finest hour.
"But Lawson, Tyler Clementi was just a student at a college, not a celebrity." So fucking what? That's how this abhorrent cultural wave got started. As if for some reason because someone becomes famous, we have a RIGHT to know everything about their personal life. When Tiger Woods made that public apology, I was more confused than anything else.
"Why is he apologizing to the public? We have nothing to do with who he fucks. Absolutely nothing. We watch him hit a ball with a stick." were the thoughts I had.
A voyeuristic mentality fuels behavior like this. You think these Rutger students would've invaded Tyler Clementi's privacy like this, if it didn't seem so accepted to do in popular culture? We, collectively, are like a bunch of peeping Toms. And the news are our binoculars. "Let's see whose private lives I can look into today..."
It's not a gay issue. It could've been anything they were filming that was private. If somebody just filmed me naked without my consent I'd consider suicide. Seriously, my nude body put on the internet, would make me consider ending it all. I'm in horrendous shape. That's a fucked up thing to do. I don't want anyone to see this, except a girl that I had already lured into my bedroom with my charm and sense of humor.
The two Rutgers students invaded Clementi's privacy for the same reason the news invades the privacy of celebrities: ratings. Now of course the Rutgers students ratings system is a bit different, it's just be other dumb college students going, "Hey I saw that video, that's fucking crazy man!" but you get my point.
And let's be honest, if when you were in college, somebody had sent you a video they made of a fellow student fucking a guy, or fucking a girl, or masturbating, or just crying into his pillow yelling at the demons to leave him alone...you'd watch it. Multiple times. And as you're watching it, you wouldn't think, "Boy this seems wrong to be watching this. I hope the embarrassment that this person will feel from the wide distribution of this video won't lead to his suicide." No, you'd just watch it and laugh. I know I would.
So let's stop acting like this is some sort of anti gay issue, it's a privacy issue. That's the big picture. Let's stop being voyeuristic cunts and start taking some responsibility for the culture we've created.
