Column Fodder: The Queer Eyes Have It
Aug. 15th, 2003 09:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eggwardsFive 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!
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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Date: 2003-08-15 08:42 am (UTC)I've written about this before and I hardily believe that Normal, Ohio failed cause it was too realistic. Goodman had a family around him that hated him deeply. The entire show revolved around how much scorn they could reap at him. All these side characters grew to be shrill and unredeemable. Thats hour-long drama territory. TV-scorn has to be diluted like the cross-class tension between Frasier and the other members of Cheers. You put up the kind of bile that the family on Normal, Ohio directed at John Goodman and the humor dies away because you don't know what to laugh at. And its John fucking Goodman of all people, we can't hate him, we can't see him as anything as lovable so the fact that his family hated him, like he was a stain on the carpet of their dreary house (which happened to be the same set as Roseanne) didn't click at all. No matter how hard the writers tried to express the kind of shit that children of conservative parents go through. Remember when Jack's mother found out he was gay, there was an issue there, Jack doubted how she would take it. A tension filled that show, made the laughs happen and then was brushed away as she made some catty comment. Thats how sitcom handles it, not episode after episode of scorn and ridicule at a character the audience is required to love, it ruined the show. And for that I am very sad, cause there was something really pure and strong and well written somewhere in that show.
If the gay guy chooses a gay guy, he gets a date and 25 grand. If he chooses a straight guy, he gets 25 grand and no date. So, he doesn't "lose" anything but his wagered pride. I think the show might do some good things as to erode the barrier between "Straight" and "Gay". As we see both men side by side, and note how much they have in common, how useless some of the stereotypes are (pays too much attention to hair...c'mon, does anyone on these reality shows not strike you as the kind of guy who doesn't pay attention to how he looks.) and other stereotypes. Maybe it will create new ones, but it challenges the untested preconcieved notions about what a gay man looks and acts like.
I hope to see more of the gay community represented but its probably not in sitcoms. Unless we are in every sitcom and thats hard. But, what these new gay moment can hope to is create a set of characters varied enough to diminish the old stereotypes and create a new set that is more representative of our variety and our strengths. This new type, I'd hope will then become available to television creators.