It seems like Tinseltown is showing their old double standards when it comes to how it wants to treat certain members. The latest one to fall by the wayside is Brett Ratner who was slated to produce the 2012 Oscar Telecast and has now resigned after an apparent gay slur over the weekend. Though the Academy was standing by Ratner in Monday they have now accepted his resignation. Whilst at a Q&A for his latest film “Tower Heist” Ratner used a singular gay slur when responding to a question ‘rehearsals are for fags’. Ratner then issued an apology:

“I apologize for any offense my remarks caused. It was a dumb way of expressing myself. Everyone who knows me knows that I don’t have a prejudiced bone in my body. But as a storyteller I should have been much more thoughtful about the power of language and my choice of words.”

But this has not been the end of the affair with many people from the LGBT community calling for him to resign or quit notably from Oscar columnist Mark Harris. In his piece “Why The Academy Should Fire Brett Ratner” Harris concludes his bias view point by saying:

“If he had used an equivalent racial or religious slur, the discussion would go something like, “You’re fired.” Apology or not. The same rule applies here. You don’t get a mulligan on homophobia. Not in 2011.”

It is hard to think that members of the gay community can claim that “fag” causes offence and worst till that it is being reported in such a loaded way. What Ratner had said was stupid but it was certainly not homophobic and I think the community should be mindful of pegging someone who uses a single word off hand like Ratner had and others who are viciously homophobic. One must also then ask the community to stop trying to re-appropriate the word like the N-word. As for Harris assertion that if it had been racial or religious he would have been fired I beg to differ. Perhaps religious offence may have been taken seriously but racial probably not. In 2010 John Mayer used the N-word in his interview with Playboy Magazine and did the usual empty hearted apology, that was it, nothing much happened to him after or since. Also I don’t think the Academy are really any place to try and give a moral conscious to considering they awarded an Oscar to wanted child rapist Roman Polanski, I think someone saying ‘fag’ should be take with a pitch of salt. The Academy’s full response from Academy President Tom Sherak is as follows:

“He did the right thing for the Academy and for himself,” Sherak said. “Words have meaning, and they have consequences. Brett is a good person, but his comments were unacceptable. We all hope this will be an opportunity to raise awareness about the harm that is caused by reckless and insensitive remarks, regardless of the intent.”

OPINION “FAG” is one of the those words that are enshrined in our society and is becoming more and more used within our subcultures that it fails to be as offensive as people make out. If this word is causing offense then the gay communities, all gay communities, have to stop using it. It becomes difficult to see how one can be offended by a word if am going to be using it on a daily basis around my gay friends.