That Ain't a Voice I Want to Hear

[Trigger warning for homophobia and violence. Note: My apologies to Deeks, who gave this a quick post while I was writing this one, and neither of us realized the other was doing so. Whooooooooops!]

Well, I've been considering watching NBC's The Voice, the peacock network's answer to American Idol. I've heard a few good things about it, and there's Christina, so.

But then last night, one of the judges on The Voice, country star Blake Shelton, took to Twitter to tweet this classic in paranoid, violent homophobia: "Re-writing my fav Shania Twain song.. Any man that tries Touching my behind He's gonna be a beaten, bleedin', heaving kind of guy..."



Oh, hello, Predatory Gay Trope. How awful to see you again.

Shelton's violent homophobia would be contemptuous enough on its own, but the contestant on The Voice who is getting the most attention—and whom the show has used most prominently in its promotions—is Nakia, who is himself gay.

Clearly, NBC has a problem on its hands if it's going to continue to rely on a gay contestant to generate buzz for its fledgling show, while handsomely paying the dividends to a celebrity judge who engages in violent homophobia for fun in his spare time.

Who, by the way, has engaged in homophobic humor before, so it's not like NBC can claim ignorance of his ignorance.

Contact NBC and let them know you object to their employment and promotion of people who express violent homophobia. The Voice doesn't appear in their dropdown list of shows yet, so choose "Other" at the bottom, which will open up a contact form.

[Via Andy.]

Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.

blog comments powered by Disqus