If you watch Duck Dynasty, read this post.

[thistlechaser]

Perhaps the show is more fittingly named than anyone knew. Duck DyNASTY.

GQ did an interview with Phil Robertson, star of the show. In it he compared being gay to bestiality and made other such comments.

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men. Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

“It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

“We never, ever judge someone on who’s going to heaven, hell. That’s the Almighty’s job. We just love ‘em, give ‘em the good news about Jesus—whether they’re homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. We let God sort ‘em out later, you see what I’m saying?”

Sigh. "homosexuals, drunks, terrorists".

The one bright point of this is that A&E has placed him on “indefinite hiatus” because of this.

---

In semi-related news, I'm still lacking in a copy of The Hunger Gays, so I started something else. It's mighty spiffy and I'm 20% through it already, so if/when I get a copy of it, I'll be able to start it soon. I'm starting to think I won't get it though -- it's gotten the most awful reviews, so I think maybe the publisher has been burned enough and isn't seeking out more. Sad!

Comments

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the explanation I saw some references but didn't click through, appreciate the short scoop.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Welcome! I'm always happy to spread the word on things like this.

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

I'm really pleasantly surprised that A&E actually did something. Duck Dynasty is a very popular show for some reason.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I have no idea why people like it (not only is it bad, it's scripted!), but I'm happy A&E acted so quickly and decisively.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

I watched a couple of eps when it started and thought, "These smug ignoramouses are not serving Louisiana and Louisianans well," and that was that.

Love, C.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You made the right choice! (Which I would have also said even before this came out...)

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

Worse than that - most people who like the show that I've interacted with just remark about "Southern Rednecks" without any mention of Louisiana. As if I didn't get enough shit from people for being from South Carolina.

Which makes the show really depressing to me. I have relatives who are very similar mountain folk. Salt of the earth types I never really related to, but they're family. If not for being born with a high IQ, I can't say I wouldn't be out there bow-hunting or catfish noodling with the family. The people I know who laugh uproariously at the show -- if they'd been born in the south, they'd have been raised around those activities and have joined in on it the same way they go shopping and get drunk on wine at bars now. They point and laugh at shows like this, but there but for the grace of whatever gods go most of us.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

I really hear you! As if the South, much less the U.S. were one big homogenous region on the map. The number of ways southerners express themselves, that differ from state to state, region to region, and even within a city, such as New Orleans -- and then, what do you make of a state like Texas?

My husband was born a southerner -- raised in northern Louisiana, and his daddy naturally had close relatives in Arkansas. The way people in Natchitoches, white and black talk, is not how anyone in New Orleans, white or black talk, and within New Orleans there are large variety of ways of speaking -- some of them very like to that of the old classic Brooklyn -- all those Irish and Italians, you see.

Anyone, those Arkansas relatives were poor, never were able to get much education, but they were authentically creative in so many ways, from playing the organ, piano and 'fiddle' to doing antler scrimshaw, to quilting, painting -- you name it. Their homes were lovely in their own way -- clean, inventive and filled with the things they had made.

And even though Charleston wants to bill itself as 'like New Orleans' it really, really, really isn't, from the architecture, to the religious traditions, to the way of speaking, to the black cultures, to -- well you name it -- the two cities are vastly different. :) I never bother tour guides, no matter how much guff they spew in tourist destinations, but this long disquisition by one in Charleston's marvelous Customs House, going on and on about how this French Quarter is just like New Orleans French Quarter -- I just had to put him straight. First of all, that they have taken to calling that part of Charleston the "French Quarter" comes from the French PROTESTANT Huguenot migration to escape the Medici throne's pogroms, while the French Quarter in New Orleans is French due to France founding the city, and then, quite a bit later, the CATHOLIC Haitian migration complete with slaves from the San Domingue slave rebellion. These histories are so different as to not intersect except with trade.

Love, C.

Love, C.

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

When I first heard this story, my initial reaction was HOW CAN YOU PEOPLE BE SURPRISED ABOUT THIS? Then I realized that was a really shitty reaction on my part, because it was actually really cool to give religious persons from the South benefit of the doubt. I often get really mad about people from the South not getting benefit of the doubt, being from the South myself, so I was upset at myself.

Now I am just disappointed that the benefit of the doubt was, in this case, sadly proven undeserved.

CAN WE PLEASE HAVE SOME REDNECKS FROM ARKANSAS THAT DO NOT BEHAVE AS THOUGH IT IS STILL 1950 PLEASE PUT MY FAMILY ON TELEVISION.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I went through the same process. My first reaction was a sad "duh", then I felt bad about that... then I felt WORSE.

I don't suppose smart, kind, respectful rednecks (or any other group) would make for good TV. :/