Great goddess, I never heard of the term “gay seat”. :rolleyes:
Truly, it’s not only taking longer than we thought, but it’s really just unwinnable.
IMO, the only thing that gives you a right to the seat is putting your ass in it. If your friend ain’t here yet, fuck him.
Now, if there are plenty of seats available, I won’t bat an eye. It doesn’t much matter to me where I sit. But if there no seats readily available, and you’ve saved some for some entity who is not present, then I will challenge your practice of seat saving.
If it’s a movie, and you’ve bought one ticket, that entitles you to ONE seat. And you only get the choice of seat when you actually, physically arrive. You have no claim on any other seat. My ticket stub gives me every right to any seat that doesn’t have an ass already in it. Seats are first come, first served. Period. That means those that *show up * have first dibs, not those who ain’t arrived yet.
I’m not so offended by the term “gay seat.” I’d never heard that before but I think it’s funny and I sort of wish that I kept a space for personal comfort so that I could refer to it as the gay seat just for fun.
Saving seats in a lecture – where students will presumably be listening to the professor and interacting with him/her and not chitchatting amongst themselves – is simply stupid. When I taught, I made a note in my class syllabus regarding behaviors I looked upon with disfavor, and that was one of them.
I’m not even getting into the whole “gay seat” nonsense. If that’s where your brain is, I just don’t have anything to say. I can’t imagine what there is to say.
Thank God we have reserved seating in movie theaters around here. You ask for seats they’ll give you adjacent ones. I’d like to see what would happen if I asked the cashier for “three seats, fifth row, but I don’t want them next to each other - I want a buffer zone between each two seats.” She’d probably end up calling the manager, who would tell me to stop wasting his time, if the people behind me in line hadn’t glared me to death by then. OTOH, now you can order specific seats over the net, so I guess that a “gay seat” is possible… if men around here wer actually as insecure as Americans.
Heh heh. I got thrown out of a movie theatre once for SHARING a seat with my then girlfriend. She was on top. No sex involved, but it did get fairly steamy. We almost got thrown out of midnight mass on Christmas Eve for the same offence. And then there was this one time, in a dimly lit bar, when…If I’m ever going to hell, it will have been worth it: my plea, having read this thread will be that I was making more space.
As a 6’5" guy with long arms and legs that extra space comes in very handy. A crowded theater with no spaces means I’m getting really chummy with the people next to me. Thankfully it’s not so bad as it used to be. Man, those old seats were so close together it was either turn sideways, have both my legs jutting out in a V formation or lose all feeling in my legs by the end of the movie. Thankfully there aren’t a lot out there like me.
I’ve never saved seats in school though. First come, first served period. But at the movies it’s not as if there wont be enough seats in the house. As long as it’s a reasonable amount and they’re in the lobby as we speak buying me food, it’s saved.
Good thinking. I sholdn’t sit next to a guy. Wouldn’t want people thinking I’m straight… But I shouldn’t sit next to a female either. Wouldn’t want people thinking I’m gay.
Being bi is confusing. 
Wow, I’m surprised there are so many guys who utilize the ‘gay seat’ strategy. Had no idea…I mean, I really don’t care the gender of the person I sit next to (sometimes I even TALK with them before the movie starts! :eek: ) My friends and I sit together. If there is a group of us (guys and girls) and we all can’t sit next to each other, I’ll always try to sit next to my best friend (another guy). I never entertained the notion someone might think I’m gay just because of that! :rolleyes:
Why do people save seats? They need a place to put their *coin purses, dearie.
[sub]*Simpsons reference[/sub]
Goddamn people around here take shit too seriously. You do understand this “gay seat” thing is usually between 15 year olds, don’t you? I couldn’t give a shit less what a bunch of strangers think about me. I would put a seat between me and my wife except we share the popcorn and I hold her hand every now and then during the movie. I like spreading out. I like both armrests. I don’t like strangers sitting next to me if there is no need. Gay has nothing to do with it.
You don’t “buy” it? Was anyone trying to “sell” it?
I, also, am a fairly large man. I also have this thing about being symmetrical. If I try to keep my elbows in, I get all scrunched and I’m not comfortable, and I won’t enjoy the movie. And I need to use both armrests so I can be even.
Of course, the reason I grew so large in the first place is because I believe that homosexuality is a sin in God’s eyes and therefore God will remove our bubble of protection and then the terrorists have already won. But you already knew that, didn’t you? You saw right through my “armrest” facade. And that makes you very clever.
Sweet God.
All these people getting up in arms about the “gay seat.”
If conditions permit, there will be a “gay seat.” If they don’t, then there won’t be.
Simply because I like my space, and, unless forced to, I will avoid the possibility of contact, simply because I don’t like it. And it’s not a “strangers thing” or a homophobic thing. Even my close friends know not to touch me if they can help it. I just don’t like it.
Some things override this dislike, however, or foce me to put up with it. Like the desire to see a movie. So if I occasionally have to bump elbows with one of my friends or a stranger, it’s well worth it to be one of the first to see ROTK or Episode III or what have you.
And, as far as the name “gay seat (or “homo seat,” as it’s called in my neck of the woods),” well, just consider it more of that de-fanging of the word that every over-afflicted member of the protesterati seems to want yet will not allow anyone but them-own-hysterical-selves to do.
(and yes, it’s just like “urinal politics,” as we call it.)
Okay, I’ve never heard of the term “gay seat” before either - I thought it was invented for this thread to describe a real-life phenomenon. But the fact that apparently there are people who use the “gay seat” (or “homo seat”) while employing it (see post above) proves my point, Abbie.
What IS your point, pizzabrat?
That I am (and others like me are) homophobic because I don’t like to be touched?
I allow for the “homo seat (conditions permitting)” because I don’t like to be touched. If I have to sit directly next to someone, I will. That I would prefer not to doesn’t make me homophobic, as evidenced by the fact that I will forgo the luxury if the situation dictates.
As for calling it the “homo seat,” it’s tongue-in-cheek. It’s a nod to the homophobia that prompted the term. I call the place I go to urinate the “bathroom,” even though there’s no bathing going on there.
And don’t give me any of that “hate-speech” crap. People wanted the word declawed so it’d be no more offensive than any other, now it is. So much so that it’s entered the general use of people who wouldn’t even give a homosexual couple a second look on the street.
Nobody cried over “metrosexual,” because it poked fun at the gay stereotype in a positive way. “Homo seat” pokes fun at the (stereotypical) “fratboy” fear of being mistaken for homosexuals. It’s making fun of “fratboys,” not homosexuals. Get over it.
(waiting for the flood of flames over stereotyping of fraternity members now…)
Of course not, not with you peeing all over the place. That’s just gross.
I think pizzabrat looked at his “to do” list this morning and read “Find a thread where I can be righteously indignant.” Some people just look for opportunities to get angry.
while i can understand the personal space viewpoint; why go to the movies together if you’re sitting separately?
Sigh.
Apparently a tall, trim guy with short arms (hey, so did Jake LaMotta!) such as myself simply can’t win. There’s nothing keeping you from using both arm rests with people sitting next to you.
I certainly don’t doubt that there’s a comfort factor, blah, blah. You’ll note that the complaint is about taking more seats than are necessary when the theater is crowded.
Sigh.
You saw right through the OP and subsequent discussion being about people being rude and taking more seats than are necessary while seating is at a premium (as it were) and saw that I hate gays, want everybody to be unfomfortable. Then *you * made a comment about **pizzabrat ** looking for any excuse to be righteously indignant. And that makes you very clever.
No, it just makes me a little over-the-top. Sorry.
My point being that for me, it’s about comfort, not homophobia. And I won’t do this in a crowded theatre. But I do try to go see movies well after big ticket sales have dropped off for that very reason. Well, that and I don’t have to sit behind some tall-haired, cell phone using, talkative jerk who brought his own Doritos.
And the sharing of an armrest has never worked out for me. Either I get it all to myself, or I don’t use it at all.
I’m small enough it’s not even comfortable for me to use both armrests at once…although I love theatres where you can lift the armrests, because then I can snuggle into fierra’s lap.