It’s Not The Homosexual… Panel Speaker Profile – Greg Scorzo

This Saturday, One+One is screening the cult classic It’s Not The Homosexual Who Is Perverse But The Society In Which He Lives at the London Underground Film Festival. The film will be followed by a panel and audience discussion. For more info on the event, see our Facebook page or visit the London Underground Film Festival website here to book tickets.

Leading up to the event, we are posting interviews with the panelists who will be joining us to talk about their reaction to the film and its compelling arguments.  Well, it’s always nice to get to know fellow perverts! We begin with Greg Scorzo – filmmaker, queer thinker AND more importantly, new member of the One+One team.

James Marcus Tucker: Are you now, or have you ever been a homosexual? If not, why not?

Greg Scorzo: I am not a homosexual because I am not aroused by images of men. Nor am I aroused by the thought of another man touching my body in an erotic manner. This is because my sexual preferences are both selfish and shallow. Women do not deserve orgasms from me any more than men do. My reasons for preferring to give women orgasms are both completely arbitrary and the product of me having lived in a heteronormative society. I’m happy to concede that my heterosexuality is completely unfair, despite the enjoyment it brings me. I would feel guilty about this if it weren’t for the fact that everyone’s sexual preferences are (in their own way) selfish, shallow, and unfair.

JMT: Are you at all perverse? If not, why not?

GS: I don’t believe in the objective existence of perverse states. Perversity denotates a state of affairs where sexual desires are at odds with the natural order of things in a manner which is grotesque and repellent. Such states don’t exist because it is part of the natural order of things that erotic desires are mostly grotesque and repellent. That’s what makes them function effectively as erotic desires. If this were not the case, words like ‘‘dirty’’, ‘‘naughty’’, and ‘‘bad girl/boy’’ would not be effective sexual arousal triggers.

JMT: Tell me something about the society in which you live.

GS: I live in a heteronormative neo-liberal society in which people are kicking and screaming against a slowly emerging consciousness that is both socialist and respects the dignity of everyone’s unique individuality. This emerging consciousness is not yet mainstream. Parallel to this, tolerance of homosexuality is in the process of becoming mainstream. Homophobia is becoming a social taboo like racism, sexism, or benefit scrounging. This mainstreaming of homosexuality is, in many regards, a positive thing. However, the price to be paid is that by becoming mainstream, homosexuality is adopting the norms and values of the heternormaive neo-liberal mainstream. When gay liberation becomes about having equal access to the heteronormative world, the heteronormative world goes unchallenged.

JMT: What is your favourite “perverted” film or film about perverts?

GS: Although I don’t believe in ‘‘perversion’’ I think there are two things that exist which are LIKE perversion: (1) The idea that using one’s sexuality to climb a social ladder is politically empowering for women and (2) The idea that the visual elements of male heterosexuality are expressions of misogyny. I have never seen a film successfully deal with either of those ideas.

JMT: What can or should straight people be learning from the queers?

GS: (1) Openly affectionate expressions of arousal at the body of another are not themselves signs of disrespect or objectification. (2) Marriage and family life are degrading and soul crushing for many healthy individuals (3) Gender Roles are BAD. (4) The City is a healthier environment to raise children than Suburbia, (5) Good parenting can happen without any of the parents being lovers, (6) Romance should not be connected in any substantive way to (a) marriage, (b) chidren, (c) settling down, (d) moving to the suburbs, (e) expensive wedding bling, or (f) the adoption of more socially conservative attitudes. (7) Romance should be connected in a subtantive way to Friendship and Equality.