The Saga of a Straight Man in Scotland

Yesterday, it came out that Gay Girl in Damascus, a blog supposedly written by Syrian-American, Lesbian activist Amina Arraf was, actually, entirely a work of fiction. The author of the blog is 40 year old Tom MacMaster, an  American studying at Edinburgh University.

Some people don’t think he’s done anything wrong. Some people don’t understand what all the fuss is about. He said himself he “didn’t expect this level of attention”.

His apology is not really an apology – instead, he tries to come up with excuses, if you’re offended by the fact he fabricated the entire thing, if you’re angry, its your fault, not his.

At one point in his apology, he claims that ever since he was young, he had ”  felt very connected to the cultures and peoples of the Middle East”. Ironically, instead of helping those he claims to feel connected to, its highly likely he has put others at risk. He’s drawn attention to the LGBT community within Syria, a community that didn’t want publicity (for articles on this, click the following link) (straightguyinedinburgh.tumblr.com). He may also have put those advocating for democracy at risk

He may have been pretending to be an Arab-American, openly lesbian woman from Damascus, but at the end of the day, he’s a middle class white man, blogging with no risk to himself or his family.

How will this hoax, impact how we look at other blogs/un-official news sources (such as twitter, blogs, or facebook posts) from individuals claiming to be in the middle east?  Unfortunately, I think this will impact how we view news sources like this in the future, which is unfortunate, because for many people who are legitimately living in fear for their safety, blogs, and social networking sites are one of the few ways they can get their stories out?

Sex sells – yes, even for organ donation

I realize there is no point in having a blog unless I’m going to update it regularly – and I haven’t done a very good job of doing that/

The other day on the bus, I saw an ad for the BC organ donor organization. I wouldn’t have noticed it, except for the photograph beside the text encouraging people to become organ donors. The picture is here – on their website http://www.transplant.bc.ca/index.asp. I Although its not explicitly sexual, the way the woman is posed is somewhat suggestive.

My friend asked me if I would be claiming that if it was a man in either photograph. To be honest, I don’t know – I suppose it would depend on the pose. That raises an interesting question though – why use a woman? Why didn’t they use a man in their ad campaign?

Could it have something do to with the fact that a partially naked woman, posed somewhat suggestively, is more likely to get the attention of their target audience – young people (who are less likely to register) – than a man on the poster?