Alright, so I have to put a disclaimer before I start this blog off here.
Disclaimer: Joke all you wish but I do not know what drew my attention to this article on MSN.com. Whenever I log online I like to browse the daily news stories for the odd and slightly obscene and this story just so happened to be there. Don't read into more then that.
Anyway, I was surfing MSN.com when I came across this article:
"BOSTON - A Massachusetts correctional officer is being disciplined for showing the gay cowboy movie ”Brokeback Mountain” to inmates at the state’s largest prison because his boss determined that the film includes content inappropriate for a prison setting.
Massachusetts Department of Correction spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said Saturday that the action was not related to the critically acclaimed film’s plot involving a gay love affair.
“It was not the subject matter. It was the graphic nature of sexually explicit scenes,” Wiffin said.
She said the officer, whom she declined to identify, failed to follow prison guidelines that require staff who schedule films to review them in advance for excessive violence, nudity or sex, as well as scenes involving assaults on correctional staff.
The officer showed the film on Thursday afternoon, two days after its American release on DVD, to inmates at a prison in Norfolk, Massachusetts, about 25 miles southwest of Boston.
Wiffin declined to discuss his punishment.
Based on Annie Proulx’s short story, “Brokeback Mountain” is about two men who meet and fall in love while wrangling sheep in Wyoming in 1963. It won raves from critics and garnered three Oscars last month, including one for director Ang Lee."
So basically, being a published writer/journalist from time to time, I had to, for lack of a better pun "rip this {article} a "new one"". Here are some things this article left me with:
1) They must have wall-mounted liquid-soap dispensers in Massachusetts State Penitentary Showers.
The Boston, Mass. Prison system is in heavy denial about the facts that their prisoners are "brokeback mount-ing" each other on a daily (or nightly, not really my business to care) basis. I mean c'mon, gay cowboy sex..."content innapropriate for a prison setting"?
2) Diane Wiffin is a fucking moron.
In fact, she wins the first ever Rudy's Blog Fucking Moron Award. I mean, of course kudos to her for thinking that anyone would believe that “It was not the subject matter. It was the graphic nature of sexually explicit scenes," I mean that is nearly Bush-worthy, but c'mon. When she decided to punish her employee for his choice, its very apprent she was unprepared for it to become press-worthy. Its a pity that like me, many other readers found humor in this because of the stereotype of gay prison sex, but the fact that she had even the slightest incling that that lame ass excuse would be sufficient is what earns her today's award.
Diane, think of it this way: You have a prison full of convitcs (murderers, rapists, and general felons to name a few). Because of their currently incarcerated state, they only have a few entertainment options ranging from playing cards, sleeping, eating, watching CABLE TELEVISION, and finding Jesus. Such wonderful cable television as The Jerry Springer Show, which, on a daily basis has themes much less-prison appropriate in nature, but not necessarily subject matter, then an artsy movie about gay cowboys. So therefore, I have a feeling that Brokeback Mountain, dare I say, cultured them a bit...
3) Kudos to the Associated Press for never missing a beat when it comes to putting unecessary jokes in their columns.
This story is really, in my opinion a joke on capital punishment. What's more punishing for an inmate to watch a movie about people of the same sex who actually LOVE each other having sex? Nothing, especially when these guys end up being each others bitches simply because they have nothing better to do. I mean its not a fact, but I haven't heard otherwise.
Also, Wiffin didn't comment on the guards punishment. Lets see, an article about prisons, gay sex and gay cowboys...with a comment like "Wiffin declined to discuss his punishment." after you've already soaked up all the other info in the article only leads you to make a joke out of what his punishment could have possibly been.
Lets just say it was on the "down low"
Bravo AP, Bravo.
~Rudy
