By Inga Muscio

According to my 1965 Random House Dictionary, myopia is “a condition of the eye in which parallel rays are focused in front of the retina, objects being seen distinctly only when near to the eye.”

            My 2002 in-house Microsoft computer dictionary defines myopia as “a common condition in which light entering the eye is focused in front of the retina and distant objects cannot be seen as sharply.”

            Both definitions say pretty much the same thing, with the noted difference being, in thirty-seven years, the frequency of myopia has evidently increased so much that the 2002 definition felt the need to qualify it with the term “common.”

            I am inspired to wonder if this physical affliction might also be a concurrently existing cultural affliction as well and, as such, has become so “common” few wish to recognize it as a condition at all. A recent perusal of a few “mainstream” queer magazine websites seems to support this theory.

            The very last of the world’s old growth forests are in the process of being turned into corporate run tree farms, and Planet Out’s home page headline features photos from their “speed dating” events in San Francisco and New York City.

            Black Muslims in the U.S are being targeted by the FBI in much the same way black militants were targeted just a few short decades ago, except now the word that seals their fate in the eyes of mainstream society (read: white people) is “terrorist” instead of “militant,” and over here, Girlfriend’s big focus is “The Four Faces of kd lang: From Country Girl to Crooner, Our Tribute.”  

            The xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" ?>Oneida, in New York (who probably didn’t have time to swing down to the city for the “speed dating” event), and the Dine, in Arizona, are under siege by the U.S government and various corporations, being driven off their land, brutalized and imprisoned by authorities, meanwhile Curve has a candid talk with Ally Sheedy about how “High Art Imitates Life.”

            In Juarez, Mexico over 350 young women have been raped and murdered in the past ten years, and another 500 have disappeared without a trace. The bodies are often found with their left nipple bitten off. These atrocities continue and no one really knows much about it because the women are poor and the Advocate is too busy reporting about the fact that gay couples have won legal recognition in Argentina.

            When you have cultural myopia going on, it is difficult to see how everything is connected and being a tree is just as difficult as being queer and every race but Clueless White and traditional indigenous and hapa trannyfag dykeboy glam rock and a worker and a farmer and so on.

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            Why did the author feel so comfortable assuming that “gays” are white? Why was he compelled to go to a community of people who were dealing with an enormous amount of grief and bother them with something that he should have been asking all his white gay male friends, which would have made for more interesting reading?

            The article reflected the incredibly limited view of this writer, excluding everyone outside his circle of friends. He was unwilling to resonate beyond his inner sanctum. Not to just pick on gay white men. Manifestations of this condition transcend race, genders, religion, the works.

            I have spoken to editors at various magazines, and asked them why they weren’t publishing articles about what is going on in the world. The general response is: “We’re not a political magazine. We’re a cultural magazine.” That means, while I would very much like to know how all the brilliant queer thinkers of our time are analyzing this situation where white men are poised to kill the planet and everyone on it, and I would like to know more about that fighting dyke spirit that once did things like bust Assata Shakur (one of those black militants the FBI targeted) out of prison in a helicopter, and I would like very much to feel like I had a queer community that was goddamn PRESENT in this world, I am at the mercy of a bunch of generally straight (white) men who are analyzing things from their own often heterosexually myopic point of view—with the occasional much sought after bone thrown from Arundhati Roy, Cynthia McKinney or Yuri Kochiyama.

            I want to know what Annie Sprinkle makes of all these recent stories (read: White House press releases) about a smallpox vaccine, and how forcing police and nurses to get one sure sounds a lot like some kind of preparation, and not prevention as it has been reported, and how easy it would be for the Bush administration to facilitate a smallpox outbreak right when he bombs the fuck out of Iraq, and then blame it on So Damn Insane, so not only will the U.S. population be too terrified to respond to the war, we will also be cowed into submission because CNN and FOX will be telling everyone, “See? Bush was righty right right about that smallpox vaccine.” Annie, what do you think of this?

            I would like to know how Patrick Califia feels about the fact that when and if this “outbreak” takes place, folks with HIV and AIDS will be as good as dead because the vaccine will kill them before smallpox does.  Patrick, what’s your heart saying on this one?

            Neither of these topics are the forte of either of these writers, but does it really matter? They are both brilliant thinkers, and I trust that they’d offer incredibly powerful assessments.

            I love the queer groups who have announced their solidarity with the people of Palestine, and protest Starbucks for supporting this horrifyingly ironic genocide. In Berkeley and New York City, two unrelated groups have “occupied” Starbucks and proclaimed them “Settled Queer Lands.”

            How many more things like this would occur if the “mainstream” queer publications gave their highly imaginative and intelligent readers a chance to focus on national and world events?

            Why do so many media sources insist on this completely debilitating, common condition? How come queers and trannys ONLY care about issues which directly affect us, in our myopia? And who, exactly, is “us”? At present, I could give a rats ass in hell about speed dating, kd lang and Ally Sheedy.

            This condition is not only myopic but stupid, selfish, and goddamn suicidal. Let’s do something else for a while and see how that works out.

Buy Inga Muscio’s Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil from Seal Press at your local, independent bookseller. And check out her website www.ingalagringa.com.