In morn media, characters whose sexualy li outsi of bary genr and sexualy reprentatns are few and far between. Most queer characters mastream Amerin televisn are labeled as eher gay or lbian, and a few rare s bisexual. Bisexualy, while least visible among sexual mori that f wh the prcribed LGBT acronym, is most visible outsi of the gay/straight dichotomy. Meanwhile the spectm of non-bary sexuali is largely ignored. In this say I will exame one character that breaks this mold and forc the morn viewer to nsir non-bary sexualy, Dean Craig Pelton of NBC/Yahoo’s Communy. The an is known for his somewhat flamboyant personaly, and throughout the seri his sexualy is revealed slowly, through small piec of rmatn that seem to ht, pecially at first, that Dean Pelton is gay. At first glance this may seem like the tired trope of “dg” a character as gay orr to appeal to queer dienc whout alienatg ls acceptg viewers. However, Craig Pelton is not merely d gay. What mak the an different is the fact that while his sexualy go unlabeled, he is still addrsed outright as non-heterosexual. Over the urse of the show Pelton reveals sexual tert men and women, and mak several statements that place him somewhere outsi of bary sexualy. In this paper I will show how Dean Pelton breaks new ground for sexualy polics televisn by challengg viewers’ unrstandg of what means to be queer.
Contents:
- NOT GAY: DEAN WCHTER AND BISEXUALY
- I WAS TEAM DESANTIS BEFORE HIS DISGTG ANTI-GAY AD
- A LIST OF JAM DEAN’S (ALLEGED) GAY LOVERS
- KEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BARBIE’S GAY BT FRIEND—NOT HER BOYIEND
- 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
- NFL ASSISTANT ACH OUT AS GAY
- SUPERNATURAL'S MISHA COLLS NFIRMS CASTIEL IS GAY AND LOVE WH DEAN
- SUPERNATURAL: “DPAIR” IS DEFELY NOT GAY!!
- ESTER DEAN NET WORTH, GAY, DATG, FAY
NOT GAY: DEAN WCHTER AND BISEXUALY
To DeSantis, if you are gay, you are not allowed to be a part of the nservative movement. * dean is not gay *
His last movie, Giant, h theaters sixty-five years ago this culture has endlsly reimaged Jam Dean om the moment he died—he is straight, bisexual, and gay; sensive and aggrsive; misunrstood and manipulative; victim and predator; the bt of and the worst. Ple Kael, then a risg film cric, plaed 1955 that watchg him was like stumblg onto the vulgar eroticism of homosexual cisg grounds—“grossly explic, ” too dulgent of boys and their “toerotic” fixatns. Too often, his negative experienc epted , aggrsive, or dangero behavr, what Bast spected was Dean’s way of takg revenge on a society that wronged Hollywood mors started as soon as Dean ma the papers, whispers that he was bisexual or gay.
I WAS TEAM DESANTIS BEFORE HIS DISGTG ANTI-GAY AD
Was he or wasn't he? I thk we'd all like to BELIEVE that Jam Dean was gay – or at least bisexual – and that if we were around at the time we'd have a shot wh him. Acrdg to HomoHistory: There are nflictg reports about Dean’s sexualy; there are a few who try to ny that * dean is not gay *
His stud, Warner Bros., promoted him alongsi Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, two closeted gay men, as their most eligible bachelor. Much k would be spilled over the years tryg to p down his sexualy—straight, bisexual, gay, asexual all found their advot—but he risted labels, not least bee the labels were tied up bigger qutns of masculy and manhood.
In those days, “homosexual” was synonymo wh a mpy, effemate stereotype he uldn’t intify wh.
“I’m not a homosexual, ” he told a reporter who asked if he was gay, “but I’m not gog through life wh one hand tied behd my back. In the heart of the homophobic ’50s, he and director Nicholas Ray quietly weaved a queer love story to his most famo film, Rebel whout a Cse, a movie filled wh qutns about what masculy meant the postwar world. ” Roger Ebert only acknowledged s homoeroticism prt 2005, and mimally at that.
A LIST OF JAM DEAN’S (ALLEGED) GAY LOVERS
Somerset Mgham read and unrstood, as did future gay activist Jack Frscher. “Jam Dean was mascule; he was blond; he was hot; he was California; he was Amerin; he was gay, ” Fristcher relled of his teenage fatuatn. ”“I’m not a homosexual, ” he told a reporter who asked if he was gay, “but I’m not gog through life wh one hand tied behd my back.
Worse, after the Stonewall Rt signaled the start of the gay rights movement, openly queer men like culture crics Parker Tyler and Jack Babc claimed Dean as an in of gay liberatn.
Gay magaz and newsletters discsed his sexualy, and San Francis’s first leather bar, Fe-Be’s, missned a statue of a biker that remoled Michelangelo’s David as a leather-clad Jam Dean. A generatn of wrers, both straight and gay, began claimg he was a sexual predator, a socpath, someone who should be shamed for his sex life, which they wrongly envisned creasgly baroque ways. Bgrapher Venable Herndon alleged that Dean had been a gay sex worker for whom no act was too gradg or too extreme.
KEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BARBIE’S GAY BT FRIEND—NOT HER BOYIEND
Bisexualy still is, to this day, a very misunrstood and/or beltled sexualy, ually associated wh the gettg-old "'s jt a phase" or " is an exce not to e out as gay/lbian". And 's te, bisexualy has been a eful getaway for many gay/lbian people, both on TV and real life - watch Dan Howell's credible g-out vio for that. However, as Dan says himself, jt bee bisexualy has been ed by homosexual people to navigate the trici of their own sexualy before fally g-out as gay or lbian, do not mean that bisexualy is a fict sexualy, as many people still believe.
The list also clus characters that have e out as pansexual - even though pansexualy and bisexualy are two different thgs - and homosexual characters havg dated people of their oppose genr as part of their ternalised when to bisexual reprentatn on TV, we n also realise that male bisexualy has clearly been unrreprented the favour of their female unterparts; a trend that is far om beg rolved over time, on the ntrary. See below a chart showg the proportn of male and female bisexual characters on TV per of televisn, based on the "List of televisn seri wh bisexual characters" of showg the proportn of female and male bisexual characters on TV over time(It has to be noted that I have not unted this chart characters that have explicely e out as pansexual, and characters that are clearly homosexual but have dated their oppose genr before: puttg inic lbian characters such as Santana Lopez om 'Glee' or Cheryl Blossom om 'Riverdale' this would have been que disrpectful to them and their muny. The send trend is: there are far more female bisexual characters on TV than male reason for this is somethg that more and more people bee aware of: that bisexual men are basilly seen as gay when bisexual women are basilly seen as straight.
We need more bisexual male characters, and we need more diverse stori of bisexual male characters: not the gay man that wonrs how female breast feels like, not the pansexual man that is nsired as bisexual bee pansexualy is still visible; but a man that shows explice attractn to both bary genrs, even unequally, but that has trouble g to terms wh this particular sexualy.
'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
Dean Wchter is a unique opportuny to show how a g-out n take years before happeng, how someone their forti n e out jt now bee they have lived s of reprsed feelgs bee of ternalised homophobia and biphobia. It is an experience that too many bisexual people real life have lived: to unrstand and accept that your attractn to one genr do not negate your attractn towards the oppose one; and bee the outsi world is way nicer to straight people than homosexual on, you jt pretend your straight and ny the other part.
NFL ASSISTANT ACH OUT AS GAY
John Wchter has never been clearly characterised as homophobic or biphobic, and perhaps he would have accepted Dean's bisexualy whout any problem; we will never know as we will never see Dean e out to his father, the latter beg ad.
SUPERNATURAL'S MISHA COLLS NFIRMS CASTIEL IS GAY AND LOVE WH DEAN
Most bisexual male characters on TV, when they are not eher pansexual or "the gay guy that wonrs what feels like wh women", are ually portrayed as men wh jt a big sexual appete. This ia is due to, once aga, the nceptn of bisexual men as basilly gay, as I have argued the first part of this article.
The story is wrten om Sam’s pot of view, and two of the thgs which Sam unts as “evince” of Dean’s bisexualy the fic—knowledge of a gay bar lled “Purgatory” and “forced lghter when Sam had mentned him lookg butch”—are drawn om non elements. However, he still emphasiz that he is “not gay” and seems to shy away om discsg his relatnships wh men on romantic terms.
SUPERNATURAL: “DPAIR” IS DEFELY NOT GAY!!
Other non male characters are also picted as bisexual and gay this fic, but the thgs rema “unspoken”, parallelg the way mastream media shi away om explic reprentatns of LGBT+ characters.
ESTER DEAN NET WORTH, GAY, DATG, FAY
There’s one problem for DeSantis, though: I am a gay woman. Ltle did I know DeSantis was farther to the right on issu that meant the most to me and the more than 70 percent of Amerins who support gay has ma clear the past few weeks that he’s more terted appeasg Twter trolls who abhor any Amerin who intifi as LGBTQ+. To DeSantis, if you are gay, you are not allowed to be a part of the nservative movement.
If Tmp was someone who don’t support the movement, DeSantis is an all-out gayns has nothg to do wh the fact that Florida is a boomg state an otherwise lacklter enomy. That beg said, DeSantis has ma abundantly clear that he do not support gay Amerins regardls of whether they support his nservative I first enuntered DeSantis durg his bold stance agast COVID mandat earlier this year, I was generally pleased wh the Florida ernor. It beme evint that DeSantis was not the champn of dividual eedoms and rights that I had hoped anti-gay rhetoric and actns are not only eply hurtful to LGBTQ+ Amerins like myself but also tarnish the image of the nservative movement.
DeSantis’ stance on LGBTQ+ issu not only ntradicts nservative valu but also reflects a severe disnnect om the majory of Amerins who support gay rights. Acrdg to polls, over 70 percent of Amerins support gay marriage, and this number ntu to rise.