“Queer Eye for the Brian Rant” Part One
Queer Eye for the Straight Oppressors! (Huh?)
Boy meets Basher (What?!?)
So much discussion over the new Bravo shows mirrors that of the discussions over Will & Grace, Queer As Folk and others.
“It’s a hoot,” says One.
“It’s a stereotypical mess,” says Another.
“It’s increasing our visibility,” says Yet Another Person.
I watch these shows, I suppose, with a morbid fascination. The same reason I sampled Eminem when the gusts of “…evil, demented bastard” could be heard and felt over the landscape.
What troubles me is this.
First of all, YES, this is all very stereotypical and lame.
Why? Because it’s horribly classist. The entire stereotype that gay men are somehow harbingers of taste in food and wine, culture, fashion, hair and interior design is nothing new. But to watch these men “descend” to lower or middle-class homes, make vicious fun of those who live there, then issue self-congratulatory notes on how their improvements make these “middle income” people seem much better is a new low, even for us.
Not only that, but in 2003, do we really need gay people on television referring to people as “fat!”
I know this sounds like another edition of Brian’s soapbox but I tell you, I can think of other efforts we as gay people have done for this nation and it has nothing to do with types of pâté’ to use or whether stripes go well with checkers.
David Nimmons, author of “The Soul beneath our Skin” argues that gay men go into altruistic professions at much higher rates than straight people. We created safer-sex; we volunteer for diverse organizations at rates thousands of times higher than straight people. Ask a room full of homos if they’ve ever volunteered for groups and organizations and not received college credit, then ask a room full of heteros. The difference is telling.
We contribute so much in so many ways much more important than as than as taste makers to straights.
Thinking of the time a friend of mine told me he would never buy anything from Banana Republic and that he only shops at Kenneth Cole, I get worried about the dangers of TV shows reinforcing such elitist behaviors. Reinforcing the myth of gay male taste will only make it that much harder for us to connect with others without being judgmental of one's cologne, designer labels, or hair dos.
BUT!!!
Boy meets Basher (What?!?)
So much discussion over the new Bravo shows mirrors that of the discussions over Will & Grace, Queer As Folk and others.
“It’s a hoot,” says One.
“It’s a stereotypical mess,” says Another.
“It’s increasing our visibility,” says Yet Another Person.
I watch these shows, I suppose, with a morbid fascination. The same reason I sampled Eminem when the gusts of “…evil, demented bastard” could be heard and felt over the landscape.
What troubles me is this.
First of all, YES, this is all very stereotypical and lame.
Why? Because it’s horribly classist. The entire stereotype that gay men are somehow harbingers of taste in food and wine, culture, fashion, hair and interior design is nothing new. But to watch these men “descend” to lower or middle-class homes, make vicious fun of those who live there, then issue self-congratulatory notes on how their improvements make these “middle income” people seem much better is a new low, even for us.
Not only that, but in 2003, do we really need gay people on television referring to people as “fat!”
I know this sounds like another edition of Brian’s soapbox but I tell you, I can think of other efforts we as gay people have done for this nation and it has nothing to do with types of pâté’ to use or whether stripes go well with checkers.
David Nimmons, author of “The Soul beneath our Skin” argues that gay men go into altruistic professions at much higher rates than straight people. We created safer-sex; we volunteer for diverse organizations at rates thousands of times higher than straight people. Ask a room full of homos if they’ve ever volunteered for groups and organizations and not received college credit, then ask a room full of heteros. The difference is telling.
We contribute so much in so many ways much more important than as than as taste makers to straights.
Thinking of the time a friend of mine told me he would never buy anything from Banana Republic and that he only shops at Kenneth Cole, I get worried about the dangers of TV shows reinforcing such elitist behaviors. Reinforcing the myth of gay male taste will only make it that much harder for us to connect with others without being judgmental of one's cologne, designer labels, or hair dos.
BUT!!!