ShomosexuaI (sic): Is Gay the new Black?

[roughsatori]

A friend just emailed me this link. I have already written that I think "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," is an equivalent to if in the 50s they had a group of heavy Black women going into White peoples homes to teach them to dance and fry chicken. This article is long; but states it better than that. Is this liberation, or is this stereotyping?

snip//
Shmomo Erectus
by Tom McGeveran

"It’s a Gay World After All!" screams VH1 in a press release pumping up their Aug. 18 documentary, Totally Gay. The show, VH1 says, will capture a phenomenon that has built to a fabulous crescendo this summer. "In the early 90’s, the entertainment landscape was a virtual gay wasteland," the promoters scold. "Fast forward to 2003, where ‘gay is the new black.’"

snip//

But underneath it all, there is a rumble, a bristling of dissatisfaction. Is this liberation, or is it stereotype? Is the current increase in gay visibility progress, or is it a retrograde throwback to the homosexual caricatures of the 1950’s, of a Nelly Nation of queens, hairdressers and interior decorators? Should we all just sit back and enjoy the show, as the caricature of the aesthetically obsessed, sweet-smelling gay man joins the American ranks of the non-threatening interloper: the funny little Jew, the tap-dancing Negro, and last year’s model, the fumblingly illiterate Italian mobster—the lovable social misfits for a new age?

Not if we have anything to say about it. Call us the shmo-mosexuals: gay men who use the same moisturizer for their hands and face, if they use it to "moisturize" at all. Gay men who thrill to the prospect that Oscar, not Felix, might have been the latently gay character in The Odd Couple. Gay men whose daydreams of a wardrobe splurge are set against the efficient, Muzaked quietude of the Men’s Wearhouse on Sixth Avenue in Chelsea. (It’s all in one place!) Joe Shmo, that is, but gay.
snip//
http://www.observer.com/pages/frontpage5.asp

[cherryperry]

1. Thank you for making me re-think my

enjoyment of the program ... until now.

Prejudice against gays is in fact the only truly acceptable one left and I do agree with your assessment. I feel so ashamed for not seeing that myself and as a Jew, I really have no excuse except to beg forgiveness. Please accept, will you?

Whenever I hear an obvious slur against gays, I call the person on it. I was remiss in not catching this!

Everyone is part of the human race and no one should be hurt by their color, religion, country of origin, sexual orientation etc.

Please forgive my lapse in brain power and whatever else contributed to my error! I'm so very sorry.

[roughsatori]

7. I actually watched the Queer Eye Guys on Howard Stern

and laughed. I am not attacking people who like the show. I watched an episode and did like it--but the stereotypical thing bothered me. I just posted this for people to think about. My brother thinks the show is an insult to gay men--his wife LOVES it.

Some will say it is just a fun hit show. But does that justify it or prove my point.

[rusty charly]

2. aaah, lighten up

the show's a monstrous hit
a cultural phenomenon, almost
and now every rag that's trying stay 'edge' has got to find a writer to dish it (john weir in the NYTimes, but this is really the observer's specialty, especially with gay issues: very much "don't worry straight people, you're still on top")
*yawn*

just lie back and enjoy it

[Sapphocrat]

3. Amos 'n' Andy were popular, too n/t

[rusty charly]

4. but amos and andy were fictional

these guys are real

(i know jai rodriguez)

[Sapphocrat]

5. Still lucrative whoring exploiting a stereotype n/t

[cherryperry]

8. Precisely! n/t

[roughsatori]

9. The article was about more then the show

I bet people like you would have told "Negroes" to lighten up if they asked you to think about the Minstrel show you were finding so funny.

Minstrel shows were Blacks performing stereotypes for white audiences. Later the Black Face on Whites started. I guess we as gay people already have that: The guy who plays Will is Straight, on Will and Grace, and he announces it in every interview. I bet he would have looked great in Black Face.

Yeah, Steppin Fetchit was a riot.

[LeftCoast]

6. While just about every point in this article is valid

I still enjoy the show. Each of the Fab 5 are 'real'. I don't believe any one of them is camping it up to pander to a stereotype. I think they're being themselves. Is every gay man like them? Nope. Most of them are boring just like everybody else. That's why they're not on TV. Who wants to watch something boring?

I hope that as the country becomes more comfortable around the idea of homosexuality we start to see more gay characters that reflect other aspects of the gay community...maybe some bears?

In any case. I think the show is funny. I like the people and I don't feel insulted in any way by their antics. The vast majority of my friends feel the same way. It's been the number one topic of conversation for a couple of weeks now. :)

[roughsatori]

11. I guess I've just always been one of the Radical types

as opposed to assimilationist. When I was a Punk Rocker my friends and I were pelted with things by the Clones behind and in front of us at Gay Pride in New York. They said we were making them "look bad." In retrospect I see there point, but to this day I am happy we dressed funny with pro-drug signs and "Kill Rich People" banners.

I watched a full episode the other night, and thought that the guys were very likable, just not the type of gay man I tend to be friends with.

Thanks for the thoughtful post. I am very Conservative looking now. And for a few years in the 90s was one of the Rich people myself.

[Devlzown]

10. Whatchoo talkin 'bout, Willis?