Members of the LGBTQ+ community are whooping it up over a recent announcement that popular TikTok influencer, ‘Sassa Gurl,’ has been chosen by an alcoholic beverage manufacturer as its calendar model for 2022.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know why. The selection, it is claimed, is yet another feather in the cap of the community, having broken into yet another bastion of the reviled toxic masculinity.
The brand, long associated with the masculine working class, has been producing its own calendars yearly, featuring the hottest natural female celebrities in skimpy attire. It has been a tradition of liquor companies in the country to reveal their calendar models before the previous year ends or in the early part of the year.
That a gay member who has made a name for himself doing low-brow comedy on TikTok has made it to the calendar spread is, for the LGBTQ + community, an achievement of sorts. It has broken barriers with Sassa Gurl, being the first openly queer endorser. And the gay community, naturally exploded in triumph.
Some netizens, however, apparently disagree. Some of them pointed out that an act that gained fame by making a mockery of a way of life and using it as a ticket to break into a space once reserved for physical feminine beauty is a travesty and should not be a source of community pride.
The women’s movement, it was explained, succeeded because its pioneers represented the best of women, not their caricatures nor exaggerations.
“They did it not to entertain or to make patriarchy laugh,” one netizen said.
Sassa Gurl, for the uninitiated, is known for her signature blush and hilarious takes on Filipino culture. He joins the ranks of actresses and celebrities who represented the liquor brand in their heydays.
In defense, the TikTok personality shared an empowering message to the LGBTQ+ about representation. Sassa Gurl said members of the community who did not go with the opinion of many should just go after their dreams.
It can be recalled that prior to his selection as the face of this year’s calendar, Sassa Gurl visualized being featured by the brand through a post intended for fun. Three weeks later, he was introduced as the calendar girl for real.
We have nothing against the LGBTQ+ community who cheered for Sassa Gurl, but it seems their intended outcome is to force themselves into a space for the sake of planting their flag and claiming it as a victory of sorts.
That, we think is far from the truth. Seeing it as ground gained is tantamount to missing the point altogether.
The real goal should have been to earn acceptance from the calendar’s traditional audience which are the heterosexual working class men.
The actual outcome, as one observer said, couldn’t be further from what the LGBTQ+ activists really imagined.
Just think about how patrons of the liquor brand would react seeing Sassa Gurl splashed on its calendar while de-stressing with friends over a bottle of their favorite drink. These are the same men who would spend time ogling other pinup calendars with curvy female celebrities and dismiss the very symbol of that community’s cause.
Of course, that alcoholic beverage would still be a nice cheap drink after a day of stressful work, but the calendar would not get an ounce of respect from the brand’s traditional customers.
LGBTQ+ activists doing victory dances to the supposed “accomplishment” of Sassa Gurl making it to the calendar of the liquor brand is rather misplaced and can’t in any measure be considered a success — unless, of course, they would define one as simply making it to a men’s calendar.
It would be better perhaps for this community to earn genuine goodwill from the working-class men to get to know the real meaning of respect.
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