by Jaclyn LytleFulcrum Staf MARCUS MCCANN IS the associate publisher and man-aging editor o Ottawa’s
Capital Xtra!
. Published every three weeks, the gay and lesbian newspaper is the largestand most widely read alternative publication in the na-tion’s capital. Te
Fulcrum
alumnus spoke about strictrepresentations o sex and sexuality issues in Canadianmedia.
Fulcrum
: What is the importance o having an alterna-tive news resource like your publication in the city?
Marcus McCann: Our primary mandate is gay and lesbi-an issues, but we do approach that rom a sexual reedomperspective. Tat incorporates all kinds o things. Tere’sa broad basket o sex and sexuality issues that we dealwith. I think it’s air to say that most media approach itrom the same angle and that their perspective tends to bea pretty conservative one. As ar as I know, we’re the only publication—or our chain is at any rate—the only news-paper chain that writes rom a sexual reedom perspective... Tere are other gay and lesbian publications, but they tend to approach reporting rom an equality-based rubricrather than a sexual reedom rubric.
How do you eel that issues o sex and sexuality are gen-erally treated by more conventional news media?
I think [these issues arehandled] in two ways: Ithink that, rom time totime, there are explicit con-demnations o certain typeso sex and sexual practices,and they’re overt. Tey’re re-ported on usually as thingsthat are criminal, [or] i notcriminal then as things thatare immoral or untoward insome way. [Or], there’s oensome implicit anxiety on thepart o the [writer] or edi-tor when dealing with issueso unconventional sex andsexuality. I think [the latteris] probably harder to rootout, and, because they’re invisible, they can have a hugeefect on the way readers think about the topics that arebeing discussed.
Do you eel that this apprehensive, traditional attitudeis refective o the way our society thinks about sex?
I really do wonder about this. I think in some ways thatnews organizations are behind the times, that they’remore prudish than people at large. I think that most Ca-nadians are with it. It may not be their cup o tea but they understand that, i it doesn’t afect them, there’s really noreason to get upset about it. I don’t know where this [atti-tude] comes rom but mainstream newspapers take painsto imply that a lot o diferent types o sexual arrange-ments are somehow unconventional. Almost everybody ts into this paradigm [o sexual practices] somewhere.We’re talking about anyone that masturbates, uses a sextoy, has premarital sex, or isn’t marriage-minded at all,people that have casual sex, or sex where it’s not just twopeople. Obviously it extends to same-sex activity. I youadd up the people that have somehow broken some sex-ual more or norm, we’re the great bulk o people, I think across most age brackets.
How do you eel readers should approach material thatdeals with the issue o sex and sexuality in the media?
I think once you come to terms with the act that sex isn’tsomething people should be ashamed o, then it changesthe way you read about sex and sexuality.
What do you think is the impact on readers when they absorb material that presents limiting views so re-quently and subtly?
I don’t think it seriously afects how people behave, [but]I think it sometimes afects how they eel about how they behave. I’m not trying to preach that people have morethreesomes, or casual sex, or whatever. It’s just that peopleought to eel less ashamed or embarrassed about the kindo sex that they’re already having. I think that’s one o thepossible outcomes o a more sex-positive attitude in me-dia, i we could get that to happen.
Writing rom a sex-positive perspective and keeping sexual reedom in mind throughout the paper mustlead, on occasion, to issues o criticism and censorship.How do you approach negative reactions to your pub-lication?
Attacking ideas, I think, isgreat. Criticize, yes. Writeletters to the editor, writeblog posts, try to get on theradio talking about it. Tere’sthe amous American quotethat “Sunshine is the bestdisinectant”. You [give] thepeople who you disagreewith a chance to respondand to some extent [keepthe discussion about] it inthe public eye. I you really do believe that your opinionis the right one, and you canorceully argue your point,then I don’t see what youhave to be worried about. People are pretty clever; they can gure it out, and i you really are on the right side o it I think that people will come around.I just get upset about people who want to end the dis-cussion and clamp down on speech when it’s somethingthey disagree with. Tere is some [negativity towards thepublication] and it doesn’t surprise me. You can’t legis-late social tolerance. People are entitled to their opin-ions, and I don’t eel compelled to make everybody likeme.I don’t even need them to respect me, especially. Teidea o monitoring somebody’s privately held belies is[insignicant] in my mind. Tings that are high on the pri-ority list are getting bad anti-sex laws of the books, [and]ending discrimination in the workplace and schools. Interms o strategies o resistance, I think the best deenceagainst oppression is living a ull and honest lie.
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Restricting sex in Canadian media
Q&A with Marcus McCann
“I think once you come toterms with the fact thatsex isn’t something peopleshould be ashamed of, thenit changes the way you readabout sex and sexuality.”
ULCRUM
Staff meetings.Thursdays at 2:30 p.m.631 King Edward Ave.
Marcus McCann, associate publisher and managing editor of Ottawa’s
Capital Xtra!
, speaks to the
Fulcrum
about sex.
photo courtesy Alex Eady
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