The producer-star of Spoiler Alert, based on a real-life romance between two men, is on a streak of playg gay characters
Contents:
- NO ONE “JT SO HAPPENS” TO BE GAY
- SPOILER ALERT'S JIM PARSONS ON WHY MOVI NEED "EVERYDAY, BORG PEOPLE" WHO JT HAPPEN TO BE GAY
- THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON
- PARENTS OF GAY CHILDREN AND THE ISSU THEY FACE
- DO GAY PEOPLE GO TO HEAVEN?
NO ONE “JT SO HAPPENS” TO BE GAY
Show a gay man on TV, and you immediately open yourself up to a gree of scty that other artists ually have the privilege of avoidg. Reprentatns of margalised subjects on screen or lerature… * just happens to be gay *
Show a gay man on TV, and you immediately open yourself up to a gree of scty that other artists ually have the privilege of avoidg. When I watched the first season of Lookg 2014, HBO’s origal seri about a group of young gay men ntemporary San Francis (season two is currently airg Atralia), I was keenly aware of the burn that such expectatns mt have posed for the show’s creators. I uld already tect a distct self-nscns about how to approach the “gay issue” when I listened to the st terviewed on CNN last year, where they each went at lengths to strs the universaly of the them that the seri addrs.
The actors assured potential viewers that the pot of the show was not to enpsulate gay life per se, but rather, to explore the liv of characters who “happen to be gay”.
there’s been gay characters and gay shows on TV before, but never told this sort of way.
SPOILER ALERT'S JIM PARSONS ON WHY MOVI NEED "EVERYDAY, BORG PEOPLE" WHO JT HAPPEN TO BE GAY
It’s the bold new trend marketg the homosexual: cintal gayns. It might even be the new party le. “I didn’t want to play a gay doctor,” an actor might say. “I wanted to play a doctor who… * just happens to be gay *
The show was marketed as a new take on what means to be a gay male morn tim. The dual terts set up a sense of ambivalence wh the seri about jt how “gay” tends to be. Those who have ed gay social workg vic will be faiar wh the term “lookg” as a shorthand exprsn for “lookg for sex”.
Often, Lookg dramatis the extent to which s characters appear tranged om the history of gay culture. Later, Patrick claims he is terted an OkCupid profile bee clus a Frank O’Hara quotatn, but then nfs that he actually had to google the famo gay poet.
THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON
* just happens to be gay *
The scen play out a strange equivotn; there is regnn of a gay cultural legacy, but s ins are handled half-heartedly, as though they were ironic props. The show seems to be announcg that is alg wh a new generatn of gay men, who require a new mo of reprentatn that is distct om the tablished cultural narrativ.
Such rtraed and sober realism is not trailblazg and of self, but is te that we haven’t seen an enormo share of gay reprentatns on TV.
In reprentatns of “gay” San Francis, we are acctomed to provotive lead characters who assume a path of rebelln or hab bohemia.
PARENTS OF GAY CHILDREN AND THE ISSU THEY FACE
<p><strong>Sadhbh Walshe:</strong> The myth is that prison is a gay man's paradise. The realy is a choice of eher rape and abe or enslavement as a 'prison ho'</p> * just happens to be gay *
Do this timid, whe-llar and geeky character reprent a mol of gay subjectivy that is pecially “thentic” our ntemporary tim? Halper and Atralian thor Christos Tslkas, who have exprsed their disenchantment wh a perceived wang of radil thought gay culture, which creasgly steers towards assiatn and obeisance to the larger stctur unrpng wtern culture – nsumer palism, marriage, nservative genr norms.
DO GAY PEOPLE GO TO HEAVEN?
Parents of gay children may go through an adjtment perd when they fd out their child is gay, but there is support for parents of gay children. * just happens to be gay *
Benrson’s crique ns the risk of dulgg nostalgia, and there is a danger glorifyg past versns of gay culture whout acknowledgg their flaws and exclns.
Nohels, he strik a chord: there is somethg d and unrwhelmg about an approach to gay reprentatn that clar s “revolutnary” stat through s pictn of characters who are themselv the oppose of revolutnary, and an athetic that traffics well-trodn trop of naturalism. To be sure, many viewers – gay or otherwise – will probably relate to Patrick, and characters such as his are as servg of reprentatn as any other. But the polics of Lookg are worth qutng, particularly light of the show’s tenncy to distance self om gay history and to dimish the notn of cultural difference.