Aug. 15th, 2003

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Five guys take over a person's life and make it over. It's Fabulous!

That might have been the sales pitch for the Bravo show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The question was, did the pitch come with the word "gay" or not? How important was that to the whole scheme of the show? Very important. It makes the difference between being a talked-about show and a show left to the doldrums of cable television hell (which is still known as the rest of Bravo's programming).

Gays on television are being talked about. When Ellen's coming out a few years ago was seen as scandalous, Will and Grace has been widely accepted. When the Loud family appeared in the first reality TV show, PBS' An American Family, it was a shock to find out the son was gay. Now reality TV shows regularly feature a gay person. Billy Crystal played one of the first openly gay characters on television and stations were pre-empting Soap for less controversial programming. Strangely enough, a prime-time showing of Queer Eye last night was also pre-empted by several stations in the South, almost 30 years later.

As the Queer Eye theme song says, things just keep getting better.

There's been several stories lately highlighting the number for shows with gay themes are on television, or in production. Television has found it's gay voice. The question becomes, what are the straights seeing in us?

One of the biggest lighting rods has ben Queer Eye's fashionista, Carson Kressley. Kressley is well educated and well heeled, but the show makes him look catty and vain. Is he really like that in real life or just on the show? We may never know. While the show comes off as genuine and the "Fab 5" seem dedicated to making life better for their chosen project, the clips of carson seem to be trying to drive home the differences between him and the straight man.

Another show, also on Bravo that seems to try to make a dividing line between gay and straight is Boy meets Boy. The gay dating show features several straight men, posed to fool the guy who is just trying to find a date. This is a twist that has never been tried on other dating shows. ABC's The Bachelor has never had to worry that there's a lesbian lurking behind that cheerleader facade. What's the thrill? to try to sort out the straights from the gays? To laugh at him if he picks the straight boy? There's a cash reward if the straight "boy" is chosen but the star, but a date is enough for the gay guy?

One more question, do the other gay suitors know they are competing with the straight guys? form the episode the other night, it didn't appear so.

Is this the face the gay community wants? Is the important part that gays are on TV, being seen, and the perceptions can be fixed? Strangely enough, the most "normal" view of gay life may have come from Fox's Normal, Ohio which came and went in the matter of days, not weeks. The problem with the show wasn't Actor John Goodman's portrayal of a big, hairy gay man living in Ohio, or the fact that the character didn't come off as stereotypically gay. The problem with the show was that it was so poorly written with wacky characters surrounding Goodman. While some might have seen it as a failure to bring a gay show on the air, the fact was it was poor quality that doomed the show.

The image that seems to be portrayed most often is the slightly, but not to much of a queen, effeminate male. Is it the fact that the stereotype is so identifiable? One would think that its a kind of shorthand, here's a character, we need viewers to know in ten minutes that he's gay. What can we do without him kissing a guy? There seems to be a lack of actual intimacy, or dating (see Will of Will and Grace). Did Matt on Melrose Place ever have a date? lacking this, there has to be other hints to the viewer that he's gay, especially if he's not out.

People wonder if the normal gay man is truly portrayed. Is it just a fear that a "straight acting" guy would scare viewers? "He's just like us! He could infiltrate our communities!" Perhaps there's something wrong with a gay man who looks like he could be your plumber. Perhaps people don't perceive gays as having normal lives, that every-thing's a cabaret, my friend.

Shows with gay themes can make it on the air, and do succeed. There are several more planned for the upcoming TV season. While Christian groups are rabble-rousing and lamenting that these shows might be ruining their standards of decency, the fact is, nothing stays on the air if it doesn't bring in revenue. if these shows aren't being watched, they will disappear. The fact that NBC put Queer Eye in prime time at the end of the Thursday block, replacing reruns of ER (which fair poorly in reruns anyway) doesn't mean that they are pushing an agenda, or they are fighting for acceptance, it means there was advertising revenue to be made. Any show with as much buzz as Queer Eye would have gotten on.

The Revolution will be advertised!
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A bit of follow up to this morning's post, which I will have to respond to a lot of great comments (thanks for the criticism - I need that.

This actually comes from a response to Randy's ([livejournal.com profile] lostncove) post this afternoon, where he questioned how much gays in media represented him, and more often, didn't. He says we don't need stereotypes, we need stories and myths about people, period (and did it more succinctly than I ever could).


So my response, slightly edited:

I have been casting a more critical eye on how the Gay Community is portrayed, looking for my place in it. I think the bears became a bit of a home do to the acceptance for my body type, mentality and interests. There's elements of "you can't be a Bear if..." that I dislike, just as much as I dislike the exclusion of others on so many other communities , gay and straight.

Have I been guilty of dismissing someone due to their looks, yep. I'm only human. I fall into some of the same traps as so many others.

Otherwise, I watched Jeffery the other night, and I thought it was a museum piece. It was a moment captured and that moment was back in 1990. The issues presented there had changed, or didn't seem to apply in quite the same way (not to say we're out of the AIDS crisis, it's just different). I didn't identify with the characters, and some of the whimsical moments just seemed more thrown in, without reason, than anything else. Are these the people I can identify with? Probably not. Is it yet another interpretation of a portion of the expansive gay community? Sure.

I guess the question is, am I really bothered by the portrayed of gays in media because I'm looking for me? Or you? I don't necessarily identify with all of the straight characters in media either, but i enjoy movies and TV and books that feature them.

Randy's conclusion is sound...we need people, gay and straight, to be people...once we reach that then we have truly met acceptance.

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