Airline cuts All Black gay kiss scene
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A New Zealand airline said Monday it was cutting an in-flight safety video showing an All Black player refusing to kiss a male flight attendant after complaints it could spur gay suicides.
The airline said it had agreed to remove a scene from the video featuring All Black centre Richard Kahui politely turning down a request to give gay flight attendant Will Coxhead a peck on the cheek.
"The move comes after complaints from members of the gay and lesbian community in the past week," Air NZ said in a statement.
The flag carrier said a university professor, whom it did not name, had raised concerns the homosexual rejection could lead to gay male suicides.
The light-hearted video called "Crazy About Rugby" shows All Blacks running through safety procedures for passengers boarding Air NZ flights.
The offending scene had All Black pin-up Kahui posing for photographs with female flight attendants then shaking his head, holding up his hands and refusing to pucker up when Coxhead points to his cheek hoping for a kiss.
The airline's operations and safety manager David Morgan said it had not anticipated the scene being viewed as distasteful or causing concern.
"We have opted on the side of caution and are changing out the scene," he said.Coxhead, a real-life flight attendant with the airline, said he was "absolutely gutted" at the complaints over a scene he described as a bit of fun.
"I'm proud to be gay, proud to be an Air NZ and extremely proud of my role in the safety video," he said.
"Obviously there are some people in the gay community that can be a little precious and need to lighten up."
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There are enough real circumstances of Hate to be labeling innocent events as an issue of hate.
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Not only should they 'lighten up' to quote the air steward, they need to get a fuckin life. Some people must have pathetic minds that they have to seek out such a non-issue and make something out of it.
Does this mean that all rugby players should give in to my sexual demands in case I threaten suicide. I probably could get that passed as a law because it would breach my human rights if they didn't.
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Found the original hxxp://www.wikio.com/video/air-zealand–-crazy-rugby-video-3934361
WARNING you might be offended by scenes of homosexual rejection, geriatric nudity and suggestive blowing into a plastic whistle -
It's kind of pathetic the way some people so ignorantly and insecurely handle such things in such outrageous ways. It's almost as bad as wanting to ban a Shirley Temple movie because she was not just dancing with, but also holding hands with Mr. Bojangles. Whether it be hate by race, or hate by another pre-determined characteristic, it's all the same thing. Some people should just surcome to "natural selection".
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While this is extremely minor, it does show a blatant rejection of homosexuality.
Also, imagine if the video were slightly different and the rugby player rejected a black woman or whatever. Do you think the outcry would be any less?
Why are gays supposed to lighten up, but no other minority group has to?
NOTE: I'm not in favor of removing that rejection bit, just wondering aloud.
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So the player should have kissed the air steward even though he clearly didn't want to, for whatever reason? Wouldn't that make him the victim of pressured unwanted sexual advances? Should straight men complain that they were been treated as blatant sex objects in the scene where the air stewardess swoons and needs oxygen, and a picture of a shirtless player with kisses printed on it. And of course, should everyone be offend by the sight of an eldery naked women running up the plane for comic effect? No, of course not, you'd have to jump through hoops to be offended by any of that in the context of the air safety video.
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The world does not live in the context of that one single video. My previous comments were based on real world that the video is based in.
Who is to say that rugby player didn't want to kiss the gay steward? Unless you have proof that it was real and not scripted like with rest of the video was, then your screams of "victim of pressured unwanted sexual advances" is moot. Rugby players are notoriously gayer than the biggest flaming queens, just watch them in the lockerrooms and pubs.
Straight men use women as sex objects all the time, so why is it so utterly horrible when they are used in the same way? Oh, that's right, we can't have them being used that way by fags.
As I previously said, gays are always supposed to lighten up, while every other group screams and moans like whores in church.
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In other words, we're an elite group of people who aren't yet acknowledged by most of the world.
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My point was, if so minded, any individual or group with strong views on any '-ism' whether ageism, sexism etc could micro-analyse that clip and complain that it sent out the wrong message (which is pretty ironic given that the message is on air safety).
IHMO it's pretty condescending of 'members of the gay and lesbian community' to assume all or any gays are so fragile that they would feel suicidal at such a trivial thing based on that clip. It could be equally absurdly argued that if the player did kiss the steward, it could raise false hopes leading to depression when not everyone got kissed by a big hunk when they wanted it.
"Straight men use women as sex objects all the time, so why is it so utterly horrible when they are used in the same way?" because there are women's groups that are vocally offended by it. If they can voice their opinion, why shouldn't men's groups .. however unlikely that would be.
As for rugby players being 'notoriously gayer than the biggest flaming queens' that's more to do with them putting on displays of being ultra macho in front of team mates and trying to prove they are comfortable in their sexuality that they'll drink beer being poured down a hairy arse crack. That's not to say that a fair percentage of professional players are gay and are still in the closet, (with only 2 professional players 'coming out' up till now) but that's another issue.
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I'm surprised the Owen Honors/Navy thing hasn't shown up here. I personally have mixed feelings. On one hand, I get the side, even within the Gay community that says "lighten up." On the other I totally understand, and so should you Mr. Martini - that Gays are the last group which can be ignored. Most companies wouldn't dare be sexist or racist, or ageist, (or be anti Jewish/Christian etc.) but routinely "fag" or "that's so Gay" is tossed around like sugar and lemon at a tea party. Look at that Ron Howard movie that is coming out!
And women ARE still used in a very sexist way, all the time. Who is in the beer commercials? Half naked women. Go get some car parts - or any other primarily male thing - the calendars from the suppliers ALWAYS have half naked women on them. Sports Illustrated still has a swimsuit issue - women, no men! As if there are no Gay athletes (gosh I could hardly type that without laughing) or Gay auto mechanics! And just for good measure, I wasn't trying to offend you Mr. Martini - just show my support for Raphjd. Cheers!
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Not offended in the slightiest. I wouldn't disagree with you over women being clearly used as commodities by men.
Not sure if there was a thread on the Owen Honors story, but someone uploaded the clips as torrent and I commented on that saying "You have to wonder if, at any point, he thought … this may be a bad idea " which, in my opinion, perfectly juxtaposes the two stories. In one you have a senior officer in the US Navy plus everyone else who was involved, who obviously saw no potential reprecussions in their 'moral boosting videos'. In the other you have an airline being ultra cautious over dire claims of suicide risks.
I would slightly disagree when you said that most companies wouldn't dare be ageist. Obviously it depends on the company and how well the laws (if any) on ageism are policed. Through a previous job I've been involved in the many complaints about older employees being marginalised and in some cases forced out their job. (Again, in my opinion) ageism in the workplace lags behind many other -isms, but uniquely it will affect everyone eventually regardless of gender, race, sexuality or disability.
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to quote a favorite book of mine: Until people learn to laugh at themselves, their lives will be miserable. At least, that's the way they'll see it.
I would say people in general need to lighten up hehehe
Honestly, i don't think people would commit suicide for a scripted video. i disagree with the so-called university professor. what does he teach? Quantum Physics?
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It's true that all groups need to lighten up.
However, it seems that the world demands that gays lighten up while everyone else refuses to do the same. And for this very reason I won't give stereotype because people will scream that I'll a racist and whatnot.
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The airline's operations and safety manager David Morgan said it had not anticipated the scene being viewed as distasteful or causing concern."
Thats funny, Air New Zealand officials said the exact same thing about Mt. Erebus on one of their flights to Antarctica.
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Yup, let's not mention the groups that EVERYONE knows but won't talk about.
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It's true that all groups need to lighten up.
However, it seems that the world demands that gays lighten up while everyone else refuses to do the same. And for this very reason I won't give stereotype because people will scream that I'll a racist and whatnot.
The world wasn't. It was a GAY flight attendant who said that just like gay people in this forum have said that. Have you seen Air NZ's safety videos? They are funny (except the one with John Travolta), homoerotic, and very original. Remember, this is the airline that had transgendered flight attendants long before Thai Air decided to.
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Agree. But i still think that there are gays who take life far too seriously. Come on, committing suicide over an advertisement?
But on the other hand, there are people of all shapes, sexual orientations, and races who take life far too seriously, so don't take my comments as anti-gay, okay?
I think that Censorship depends on whether it makes Censor (sense or) not. (i love this "punning")
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Would it have been better if the rugby player teasingly requested the peck on the cheek, and
the attendant looked away coyly?I first looked at it (always with a gay eye) thinking, {nervously, yet gayly waving hands} "No you can't kiss me … [because my boyfriend is sitting in the seat next to me …]
Personal note: All airline safety videos should be this light-hearted as it would put those who are
very nervous about flying at ease, methinks. -
Let's look at the "you need to lighten up" concept outside this single issue.
A Police woman just won a a bunch of money here in Scotland because here supervisor was routinely making homophobic remarks to/about her. She kept complaining about his constant barrage of nasty comments and every time she was told to "lighten up, he doesn't mean anything by it".
Imagine if she were black or jewish or muslim or some other group. No one would dare tell her to "lighten up, he doesn't mean anything by it". The supervisor would have been fired immediately.
