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Originally Posted by Trollheart
Isn’t it the Navy who had the “Don’t ask don’t tell” policy till a while ago? And yet, here they are, using Village People to try to get people to join up? I mean, you might as well have had Motorhead spearhead a teetotal campaign, or asked Kerry King to run anger management classes!
It;s a sad irony, surely, that the military service who prevented homosexuals from serving would use the most iconically gay band in the world to advertise their services. I don’t honestly know if Village People are gay, and it doesn’t really matter. The point is they were, have been, and always will be identified with being gay, and that’s surely not the image the manly US Navy wants to project to the world?
In the end, as it goes, the project was pulled over protests that taxpayers’ money was being used to shoot a music video, as the Navy provided a warship, dock and setting --- and obviously financial backing --- for what would go on to be a huge hit for the pop group. Not the done thing, and quite right too. But it does make you wonder, do the chiefs at the navy still drink rum, and if so, did they perhaps overdo it the day they came up with this concept?
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"Don't ask Don't tell" wasn't about preventing homosexuals from serving. They could sign up but they just had to keep it to themselves. The Navy had that reputation long before attaching the image of the Village People. If you wanted to be tough and join the military you would go into other branches like Marines and the Army.
I just went searching because I was curious about the origin of the homosexual stereotype associated with the Navy and I found some info.
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It pre-dates the United States and was present in the English Royal Navy as well. The actually reason is very simple. Sailors were sometimes, and more often reputed, to be prison gay. That is they were removed from an environment with large numbers of women for months, sometimes later years, at a time and turned to alternative sexual practices. A captain or officer might have a wife aboard a ship but everyone else was pretty much on their own (you can find these women by looking at the quartermasters records and seeing who was drawing double rations).
Sodomy if found out was generally punishable with flogging or death.
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There is also the stereotype of sailors going out during port calls and f
ucking any woman walking by especially women of the night.
The stereotype is now mostly associated only with guys that are on subs because women aren't allowed to be on subs. They might be making progress to change that though.