That's not very PC of you. Shouldn't you be tolerating and respecting my opinion and all that other post modern junk.

Commercials are stereotypes. They are limited in their ability to depict real characters by virtue of a limited duration and therefore are inevitably oversimplifications of real life.

Oh look a white guy in his 50s talking about finance. I object! It's a woman wearing glasses and a suit giving me healthcare advice. It's a silly dad character demonstrating how easy a product is to use while wearing socks on his ears. It's a young mother worried her neighbor will think she has a dirty toilet. It's a young guy ringing his mum out of the blue, but she assumes he wants money. A guy is waiting for his wife to get ready and has time to buy McDonalds for breakfast. It's a lady over 50 who's apparently a better driver than me by virtue of her age alone – oh sorry “experience” (not the statistic fact that over 50s tend to drive less). And I've met loads of New Zealanders and they aren't all good looking outdoors types. Bit disappointed that stereotype wasn't true actually.

As a society stereotypes are built into the way we communicate. I'm all for being vocal when those stereotypes are used as part of some insidious political agenda. But what's the agenda here? To imply the gay community is creative? To what ends? How is that destructive? Are you concerned that heterosexual designers will be overlooked in the work place for their homosexual colleagues?

My point was society is hyper-sensitive about the word “gay” on TV because it's been deemed non-PC. Hearing the word gay (and seeing homosexual characters on TV for instance) helps to normalize homosexuality. That's a good thing.

Furthermore if we, as a society, accept that there is an unspoken principle that certain words, groups and topics are out of bounds when it comes to humour – we ironically exclude that group from full participation in our society. Well intentioned discrimination is still discrimination. And before you retort stereotypes and discrimination are not the same thing.

Humour is often how we expose and overcome our differences. The very fact we are having his discussion is proof that talking about an issue forces us to challenge our stereotypes and opinions and review them. Again another good thing.

I abhor the notion that we must all be the same in order to be equal. It's nonsense. Equality has nothing to do with our imagined sameness and pretending we are all like is in my view guaranteed to retard our advancement towards true social equality!

it's the stereotyping

Ooh shock horror someone said the word “gay” on TV!

To quote Harry Potter:
“Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.”

But I suppose now I’ll be accused of advocating witch craft or some such nonsense.