Monday, February 16, 2009

Homophobia At Blue Seas Resort

As many of you who follow this post realize, there has been an ongoing conflict between longer term fractional owners of the once Playa del Sol and now Blue Seas Resorts and the owners and management. One of the bones of contention is the repostioning of Blue Seas Resorts as a primarily gay resort when most of those who originally bought here are not gay, are older, and often bring their children and grandchildren with them when they stay here.

In one of those things that make you scratch your head, Ken Molinaro, an owner of Blue Seas Resorts, brought in some kind of a communication guru to address these issues. As one might expect, given who hired him, one of his findings was:

Homophobia

A considerable amount of homophobia was expressed during the interviews and meeting amid the claims of heterophobia from Playa del Sol management to owners.

Much of the resistance to the rebrand appears directly related to homophobia amongst owners despite claims to the contrary.


I find this to be somewhat amusing given that a number of the fractional owners here are gay and we have always been a gay-friendly resort.

Also, what was ignored, was the shift from gay-friendly to an exclusively gay community, as is obvious from the language of the Blue Seas Resort website:

Blue Seas Resort and Spa is Puerto Vallarta´s first luxury beach-front Hotel and Beach Club dedicated to providing a unique and personalized holiday experience to the gay and lesbian community and our friends

And:

Exclusively for the discerning gay man, lesbian, and all our friends.

And:

Paradise for those seeking the intimacy and quality of an exclusive beach-club with the excitement and open social atmosphere of the traditional gay beach.

I don't think one has to be homophobic to surmise that there has been a shift from gay-friendly towards exclusively gay. At least in terms of marketing. You will note that their website features no pictures of heterosexual couples, nobody who is middle-aged, and cetainly no children.

Also impled was that because of the homophobia there was an undue concern with inappropriate behavior. Again, apparently ignored, was this statement on the Blue Seas Website:

We are committed to providing a truly unique and memorable experience for all our guests. So for the confirmed hedonists, we are creating an exclusive, luxury Spa with professionally-trained staff, private treatment facilities, steam room and a fully-equipped gym with state-of-the-art equipment.

Hmm, confirmed hedonists. Isn't a hedonist someone who subscribes to the ethical doctrine that only that which is pleasurable is intrinsically good? Now granted, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the philosophy of hedonism. But in the context of providing intimate settings and outdoor beds on the beach it does tend to blur a bit into licentiousness, the lacking of moral discipline or sexual restraint.

Things are pretty calm down here though. The Beach Club no longer enforces a minimum amount of purchases in order to be able to use their beach chairs, the bar and restaurant are virtually deserted except as a place for the timeshare salesmen to conduct business, the whole place shuts down at 6:00 P.M., and things are almost normal again.

1 comment:

  1. Hello,

    I stayed in said Resort a couple of months ago when I was on my annual vacations. It is a lovely resort with peaceful surroundings. Everything was just fabulous, I'm happy with this choice after a hectic day in Mexico.

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    ReplyDelete