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What do SirTimRice, the salvationarmyuk, SafcFans and boy porno ‘Sunshine Reggae - Cute, smooth young boys’ have in common? Answer: Joe McElderry! Joe is performing a song adapted for him by Tim Rice with the cathedral's choirboys and the Sunderland Monkerwearmouth Salvation Army Band on 8 December 2011 at the Carols of Light event organised by Sunderland Football Club and the Cathedral.
Joe McElderry was featured on the cover of last month's special 400th celebration issue of Gay Times magazine (here: http://t.co/STaOz9OV ). The magazine gave Joe McElderry nine pages of interview and modelling shots inside and feted him as a role model for young men throughout the UK.
But if you want to see what is really being celebrated here, you have to start not from the front but the back of the magazine (which is after all where boys lured into buying the magazine by Joe McElderry's photo on the front will end up). There, you will first see several pages of ads for pornographic chat lines, including ‘Gay Grandads’, ‘Filthy Stories Dial + Listen’ and ‘Barrack Room Boys’.
There then follow pages of ads for porn videos including many with naked boys on their covers and featuring titles such as ‘Fresh Meat’, ‘Sunshine Reggae - Cute, smooth young boys’, ‘The Boys From England’, ‘Rent Boy – King of the Meat Rack’, 'Sunshine Boys - Peachy Smooth Teens', 'Euroboy XTra Large Lads - adorable young twinks' and (appropriately enough) 'Below The Cowls - Young Novice Monks tempted From The Path Of God'.
Next come full page ads for lubricants and anal plugs and finally there are several pages of ads for rent boys, with photos and descriptions such as ‘hot and well hung’ or ‘young guy 19 years old’.
This then is what Joe McElderry is a cover boy for and what the young men who are attracted to the magazine by Joe’s photo on the front are being sold by following his example. The commercialisation theme continues even in the interview with Joe, which includes several full page photographs of him modelling different outfits, with the names of the manufacturers of the clothes he is wearing printed prominently on each page.
Lastly, it should be pointed out that the filth at the back of the magazine is matched by the deceit at the front: the interview poses Joe as a brave role model for bullied young men, when in fact Joe repeatedly denied being gay in December 2009 even though he had had a gay affair in July 2009. Joe did this solely for commercial reasons: to build up his female fanbase after winning the 2009 X Factor show (full story below).
Please note that I am far from being homophobic: I make no complaint about the ads for gay holiday services in this issue of Gay Times for example, or the interviews with decent people like Will Young and Sir Ian McKellen. I object solely to commercialised sexuality being purveyed as a role model for vulnerable young men. In particular, if boys are going to be influenced by Joe McElderry to use anal plugs, the least Joe can do is encourage them to take medical advice as to the side effects that this practice can cause.
BACKGROUND TO THE JOE McELDERRY STORY
Singer Joe McElderry (pictured making a Satanic hand gesture here: http://t.co/oFnjDtU1 ) is a proselytising gay who has been using his homosexuality to sell his albums ever since winning Great Britain’s X Factor in December 2009.
McElderry was nominated as a gay role model by the UK gay organisation Stonewall [1] and he told the UK Gay Times magazine it’s nice that he helps young men to come out [2] .
McElderry’s initial fanbase in 2009 was young and female but there were rumours that he was gay, so he at first went out of his way to deny being gay, thus tricking his girl followers into thinking he was available to them. In a typically calculating deception, Joe went onto the front page of the UK’s biggest-selling daily newspaper, the Sun, on 15 December 2009 to say he was straight [3]. He told another newspaper he had no idea where the rumours he was gay came from [4].
All of this was a barefaced lie as we were to find out just 5 months later. For in July 2010, having built up a female fanbase, and with the PR drive for his new album about to be launched, Joe McElderry decided he wanted to recruit young men as potential customers and he shamelessly went onto the front page of the Sun again on 31 July 2010, this time to say he was gay [5]!
There was a problem though: as Joe had so recently DENIED being gay he was in danger of being portrayed (accurately) as an opportunistic liar using his sexuality to prey on boys. The answer? For Joe it was simple: just tell more lies. Joe claimed he had never realised he was gay and never had a relationship with another man! He claimed he realised he was gay only three weeks earlier when someone “hacked” his Twitter account and sent out a tweet outing Joe as gay.
The whole story was in reality a cynical lie: Joe had in fact conducted a gay affair in July 2009 [6] and the “hacking” was almost certainly his own work, the whole sordid stunt being carefully planned with his PR team.
To this day, Joe McElderry continues to target young men in two ways. Firstly McElderry uses his sexuality to dupe young interviewers into thinking he is innocent and available and a role model for young men. A good example is this interview in which Joe McElderry pretends not to know what a French kiss is yet revels in the way he causes vulnerable young men to come out as gay [7].
Secondly, Joe McElderry milks the Pink Pound for all it’s worth. He pretends that he realised he was gay only when he read a tweet saying he was and thus he promotes the notion that being gay is a lifestyle choice you can turn on or off at your convenience and that your sexuality can be bought and sold on the front pages of the newspapers like a slab of meat or a bag of fruit. So Joe appears regularly in gay papers and venues, trading off his new-found sexuality and showing young men that they can do the same.
Online sources
[1] http://www.stonewall.org.uk/media/current_releases/4657.asp
[2] http://www.gaytimes.co.uk/Interact/Blogs-articleid-8514-sectionid-714.html
[3] http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/x_factor/2772272/Joe-McElderry-had-no-spark-with-Jordan.html
[4] http://www.dailystar.co.uk/playlist/view/112736/Joe-McElderry-is-pride-of-Britain-/
[5] http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/3076084/Joe-McElderry-admits-that-he-is-gay.html
[6] http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/3077275/Joe-McElderrys-first-gay-kiss-talks-to-Sun.html
[7] http://www.gaytimes.co.uk/Interact/Blogs-articleid-8514-sectionid-714.html
Joe McElderry was featured on the cover of last month's special 400th celebration issue of Gay Times magazine (here: http://t.co/STaOz9OV ). The magazine gave Joe McElderry nine pages of interview and modelling shots inside and feted him as a role model for young men throughout the UK.
But if you want to see what is really being celebrated here, you have to start not from the front but the back of the magazine (which is after all where boys lured into buying the magazine by Joe McElderry's photo on the front will end up). There, you will first see several pages of ads for pornographic chat lines, including ‘Gay Grandads’, ‘Filthy Stories Dial + Listen’ and ‘Barrack Room Boys’.
There then follow pages of ads for porn videos including many with naked boys on their covers and featuring titles such as ‘Fresh Meat’, ‘Sunshine Reggae - Cute, smooth young boys’, ‘The Boys From England’, ‘Rent Boy – King of the Meat Rack’, 'Sunshine Boys - Peachy Smooth Teens', 'Euroboy XTra Large Lads - adorable young twinks' and (appropriately enough) 'Below The Cowls - Young Novice Monks tempted From The Path Of God'.
Next come full page ads for lubricants and anal plugs and finally there are several pages of ads for rent boys, with photos and descriptions such as ‘hot and well hung’ or ‘young guy 19 years old’.
This then is what Joe McElderry is a cover boy for and what the young men who are attracted to the magazine by Joe’s photo on the front are being sold by following his example. The commercialisation theme continues even in the interview with Joe, which includes several full page photographs of him modelling different outfits, with the names of the manufacturers of the clothes he is wearing printed prominently on each page.
Lastly, it should be pointed out that the filth at the back of the magazine is matched by the deceit at the front: the interview poses Joe as a brave role model for bullied young men, when in fact Joe repeatedly denied being gay in December 2009 even though he had had a gay affair in July 2009. Joe did this solely for commercial reasons: to build up his female fanbase after winning the 2009 X Factor show (full story below).
Please note that I am far from being homophobic: I make no complaint about the ads for gay holiday services in this issue of Gay Times for example, or the interviews with decent people like Will Young and Sir Ian McKellen. I object solely to commercialised sexuality being purveyed as a role model for vulnerable young men. In particular, if boys are going to be influenced by Joe McElderry to use anal plugs, the least Joe can do is encourage them to take medical advice as to the side effects that this practice can cause.
BACKGROUND TO THE JOE McELDERRY STORY
Singer Joe McElderry (pictured making a Satanic hand gesture here: http://t.co/oFnjDtU1 ) is a proselytising gay who has been using his homosexuality to sell his albums ever since winning Great Britain’s X Factor in December 2009.
McElderry was nominated as a gay role model by the UK gay organisation Stonewall [1] and he told the UK Gay Times magazine it’s nice that he helps young men to come out [2] .
McElderry’s initial fanbase in 2009 was young and female but there were rumours that he was gay, so he at first went out of his way to deny being gay, thus tricking his girl followers into thinking he was available to them. In a typically calculating deception, Joe went onto the front page of the UK’s biggest-selling daily newspaper, the Sun, on 15 December 2009 to say he was straight [3]. He told another newspaper he had no idea where the rumours he was gay came from [4].
All of this was a barefaced lie as we were to find out just 5 months later. For in July 2010, having built up a female fanbase, and with the PR drive for his new album about to be launched, Joe McElderry decided he wanted to recruit young men as potential customers and he shamelessly went onto the front page of the Sun again on 31 July 2010, this time to say he was gay [5]!
There was a problem though: as Joe had so recently DENIED being gay he was in danger of being portrayed (accurately) as an opportunistic liar using his sexuality to prey on boys. The answer? For Joe it was simple: just tell more lies. Joe claimed he had never realised he was gay and never had a relationship with another man! He claimed he realised he was gay only three weeks earlier when someone “hacked” his Twitter account and sent out a tweet outing Joe as gay.
The whole story was in reality a cynical lie: Joe had in fact conducted a gay affair in July 2009 [6] and the “hacking” was almost certainly his own work, the whole sordid stunt being carefully planned with his PR team.
To this day, Joe McElderry continues to target young men in two ways. Firstly McElderry uses his sexuality to dupe young interviewers into thinking he is innocent and available and a role model for young men. A good example is this interview in which Joe McElderry pretends not to know what a French kiss is yet revels in the way he causes vulnerable young men to come out as gay [7].
Secondly, Joe McElderry milks the Pink Pound for all it’s worth. He pretends that he realised he was gay only when he read a tweet saying he was and thus he promotes the notion that being gay is a lifestyle choice you can turn on or off at your convenience and that your sexuality can be bought and sold on the front pages of the newspapers like a slab of meat or a bag of fruit. So Joe appears regularly in gay papers and venues, trading off his new-found sexuality and showing young men that they can do the same.
Online sources
[1] http://www.stonewall.org.uk/media/current_releases/4657.asp
[2] http://www.gaytimes.co.uk/Interact/Blogs-articleid-8514-sectionid-714.html
[3] http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/x_factor/2772272/Joe-McElderry-had-no-spark-with-Jordan.html
[4] http://www.dailystar.co.uk/playlist/view/112736/Joe-McElderry-is-pride-of-Britain-/
[5] http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/3076084/Joe-McElderry-admits-that-he-is-gay.html
[6] http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/3077275/Joe-McElderrys-first-gay-kiss-talks-to-Sun.html
[7] http://www.gaytimes.co.uk/Interact/Blogs-articleid-8514-sectionid-714.html