Heléne's character feeds [his nervo] gay lghter bee he wants to be validated by her.
Contents:
- HIGH MATENANCE GIV US A BRILLIANT DENSTCTN OF THE “GAY BT FRIEND” TROPE
- HOW HIGH MATENANCE SUBVERTS THE STEREOTYP OF THE GAY MAN–STRAIGHT WOMAN RELATNSHIP
- HIGH MATENANCE’S ASSHOL MAX AND HELéNE ON TOXIC RELATNSHIPS, RUPL, AND THE SYNDROME OF GAY LGHTER
HIGH MATENANCE GIV US A BRILLIANT DENSTCTN OF THE “GAY BT FRIEND” TROPE
“Olivia,” the fifth webiso of High Matenance, troduc Max (Max Jenks), a gay twentysomethg “wastg away retail,” and his roommate and... * high maintenance gay episode *
“Olivia, ” the fifth webiso of High Matenance, troduc Max (Max Jenks), a gay twentysomethg “wastg away retail, ” and his roommate and bt iend, Laey (Heléne Yorke). That was: until the HBO episo “Meth(od)” fally challenged our perceptn of the trope of the “gay bt iend. In effect, Act 2 of “Meth(od)” plays like a reful medatn on the gay bt iend TV trope.
It’s later revealed that Chad and Annie slept together sophomore year of llege, sendg Kabir to a f of rage the night before he’s on ll. We’ve seen untls straight women wh their gay bt iends on TV but never like this.
HOW HIGH MATENANCE SUBVERTS THE STEREOTYP OF THE GAY MAN–STRAIGHT WOMAN RELATNSHIP
High Matenance’s Max and Laey are a faiar pair of misanthrop: a gay male and straight female duo where each enurag the other’s rottenns a game of one-upmanship. We’ve seen untls straight women wh their gay bt iends, but never que like this. The episo begs at a bachelorette party, wh Max as the token gay male among a gaggle of blons.
“Back off bch, get your own gay hband, ” Laey terjects. In pop culture, gay men have often figured as accsori to straight women (or straight men), and High Matenance, Max willgly plays that role. He’s an embodiment of a televisn trope: the helpful gay man.
HIGH MATENANCE’S ASSHOL MAX AND HELéNE ON TOXIC RELATNSHIPS, RUPL, AND THE SYNDROME OF GAY LGHTER
There was a leral show built on the ncept of the helpful gay man—Queer Eye for the Straight Guy—but he exists a plethora of TV shows om The Real Hoewiv of Atlanta to, most signifintly, Sex and the Cy. (Realy has, turn, mimicked pop culture, wh straight women lookg for “their gays” and gay men performg as a way to be validated. High Matenance ends the episo by phg the trope of the fag hag and her gay hband until malfunctns.
Stng out on crystal meth, Max be a “dancg gay clown” his unrwear. He’s a dgged-out shell of a gay man who spews a stream of rapid-fire jok and nothg else. Max’s relatnship wh other gay men is the foc here, somethg that’s rare to see even on shows where the gay male and the straight female had equal billg.
In fact, the first kiss between gay men on the show was a meta-joke: Jack was prottg how a TV show cut a gay kiss, so Will kiss him on The Today Show.