Trump and Putin aren’t secret gay lovers, and there are other ways to portray the bond they share. Straight people, you do us no favors by painting our oppressors in our likeness. It’s about recognizing that there’s nothing radical about using the LGBTQ+ community as the butt of your weak joke, at the precise time that LGBTQ+ people are being targeted because of the very stigma you’re perpetuating for a few retweets. It’s not about taking the high road at this point, I think the high road has all but collapsed. But it’s not subversive to buy into oppressive norms to do it. Russian news outlets are having trouble reporting exactly which image of the Internet’s many Putin-gay-clown memes is now. Russia has banned a picture depicting President Vladimir Putin as a potentially gay clown. And to be clear, I also support the mission of irritating Donald Trump. The Washington Post has a story about severe punishments for mocking Putin or simply liking the wrong things on social media. We live in drastic times, and people are looking for any way possible to get Trump’s goat. So why are so many pretending they’re more than that? It’s not immediately clear how cartoons and jokes like these amount to anything more than scrawling “GAY” over someone’s yearbook picture. Homosexuality’s social stigma is what makes these images so scandalous, and it’s that same stigma that keeps many from being able to come out, lest they be mocked or deemed inferior. It’s also worth considering how closeted people likely feel when they see jokes like this, which use gayness to insult someone. The crux of the insult doesn’t change just because it’s coming out of the mouth of someone who has gay friends that’s not how this works.
The images were widely circulated online following reports that the images had been banned in Russia in early April 2017, leading many to cite the spread of the images as an example of the Streisand Effect.
#Vladimir putin gay memes series
It’s why “gay” is such a popular insult in middle school. Gay Clown Putin refers to a series of photoshopped images depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin as a clown wearing garish makeup. President Vladimir Putin oversaw a pomp-filled display of Russia's.
Many insecure, homophobic straight men hate being called gay because they hate gay people. Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on as he attends a ceremony for Russia's Navy Day in Saint Petersburg on July 30, 2017. This isn’t any different from how the word “gay” has historically been used as an insult. Russian news outlets are having trouble reporting exactly which image of the. But let’s stop pretending that’s a good justification, or that calling them “gay” is radical somehow because they don’t like gay people. (Denis Doyle/Getty) Russia has banned a picture depicting President Vladimir Putin as a potentially gay clown. Sure, Trump and Putin probably hate being depicted as gay lovers.