Birthdays, Straight Guys and Trashy Francophiles...
Some birthdays are like annual events for me. Some I have been going to for the past ten years or more. And over the years I get to witness defining features of the so-called gay community in Cairo.
This was one was a birthday party of a dear, dear friend who was educated in a francophone-oriented system. Now in Cairo, bourgeois education is either of two, Anglophone, which is the majority, or francophone, which is the rest.One of the many Colonialist legacies of the French Occupation of Egypt (which surprisingly lasted only for 3 years and yet its influence endured for centuries) and British Occupation which did little to affect culture in Egypt yet made the Egyptians open to Anglophone tendencies and tastes in education in a way.
Those who were taught in proper Anglophone schools have the Anglo-American sensibilities and common sense. On the other hand those who were taught in francophone schools have the so-called French perversions and decadent leanings.
My dear friend, was not afflicted with the normal French social diseases. He was generous, gallant and had such a good heart. He only acquired the sophistication and refinement of French culture.
Not everyone in his party however was the same.
By observation to the sample of Francophiles (for they like to associate themselves with anything French) was that they were of the trashiest kinds!
Loud, imposing, perverted, and with an obscene sense of humor.
Some friends were invited every year, and those were more or less the same, but even those who were new on the guest list, did not do much to leave a good impression.
My friend's amiable nature, makes him acquainted with such a wide variety of people. So every time you would find a new, strange group of people. A group of pregnant women with their husbands and other children. A regular feature is a group of artists. Opera singers, directors, actors. A presence from the art scene was always visibly felt every year.
So were straight guys. Who were completely out of place of course.
In such a social setting you would wonder what on earth would a straight man do in a gay birthday party with bunch of artists and social pariahs?
And my luck has it that every year I have to go tell my dear friend, such and such guy is very attractive, and the classic answer would be, shrugging shoulders and saying "oh, but he is straight".
And I would just nod in misery and gather my things to go, for the party is done for me.
There is not one thing here I could think of that keep me.
Too much for a gay birthday party!
This was one was a birthday party of a dear, dear friend who was educated in a francophone-oriented system. Now in Cairo, bourgeois education is either of two, Anglophone, which is the majority, or francophone, which is the rest.One of the many Colonialist legacies of the French Occupation of Egypt (which surprisingly lasted only for 3 years and yet its influence endured for centuries) and British Occupation which did little to affect culture in Egypt yet made the Egyptians open to Anglophone tendencies and tastes in education in a way.
Those who were taught in proper Anglophone schools have the Anglo-American sensibilities and common sense. On the other hand those who were taught in francophone schools have the so-called French perversions and decadent leanings.
My dear friend, was not afflicted with the normal French social diseases. He was generous, gallant and had such a good heart. He only acquired the sophistication and refinement of French culture.
Not everyone in his party however was the same.
By observation to the sample of Francophiles (for they like to associate themselves with anything French) was that they were of the trashiest kinds!
Loud, imposing, perverted, and with an obscene sense of humor.
Some friends were invited every year, and those were more or less the same, but even those who were new on the guest list, did not do much to leave a good impression.
My friend's amiable nature, makes him acquainted with such a wide variety of people. So every time you would find a new, strange group of people. A group of pregnant women with their husbands and other children. A regular feature is a group of artists. Opera singers, directors, actors. A presence from the art scene was always visibly felt every year.
So were straight guys. Who were completely out of place of course.
In such a social setting you would wonder what on earth would a straight man do in a gay birthday party with bunch of artists and social pariahs?
And my luck has it that every year I have to go tell my dear friend, such and such guy is very attractive, and the classic answer would be, shrugging shoulders and saying "oh, but he is straight".
And I would just nod in misery and gather my things to go, for the party is done for me.
There is not one thing here I could think of that keep me.
Too much for a gay birthday party!
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