What ‘Grace & Frankie’ Gets Right & Wrong About Gay Friendship | Decir

Contents:

• WILL & GRACE BROKE GROUND FOR GAY REPRENTATN—CAN IT DO IT AGA?
• WHAT ‘GRACE & FRANKIE’ GETS RIGHT & WRONG ABOUT GAY FRIENDSHIP
• WILL AND GRACE STAR CONFIRMS HE’S GAY
• HOW WILL & GRACE PAVED THE WAY FOR GAY CHARACTERS ON TV
• 'GRACE AND FRANKIE' REVIEW: NETFLIX SERI ABOUT GAY HBANDS AND SPURNED WIV IS REMARKABLE
• ‘WILL & GRACE’ FANS ARE STILL UNSURE IF ERIC MCCORMACK IS GAY REAL LIFE
• GRACE AND FRANKIE: THE COMPLEXY OF GAY INTY

WILL & GRACE BROKE GROUND FOR GAY REPRENTATN—CAN IT DO IT AGA?

TV Seri1998–2020TV-PG22mGay lawyer Will and straight terr signer Grace share a New York Cy apartment.

Their bt iends are gleeful and proud gay Jack and charismatic, filthy-rich, amoral sociale lawyer Will and straight terr signer Grace share a New York Cy apartment.

Their bt iends are gleeful and proud gay Jack and charismatic, filthy-rich, amoral sociale productn, box office & pany Episos246Vios54Funny Women of TelevisnFunny Women of TelevisnWe salute the brilliant women behd all those unfettable lghs on the small the galleryMore like this7. In 2012, former Vice Print Joe Bin ced the NBC s Will and Grace as a reason for Ameri's "evolvg" attu on homosexualy 2012: "I thk Will and Grace probably did more to te the Amerin public than almost anybody has ever done so far. Broadst televisn the early 2000s was a powerful form of reprentatn wh work UPN and s Ain-Amerin geared programmg, diverse soaps like telenovela adaptatn Ugly Betty, and y, ss like Will and show, starrg a gay man and his straight female roommate, at least partially managed to te straight people on the ia that there's more than one type of gay person—albe rich, whe, affluent on.

WHAT ‘GRACE & FRANKIE’ GETS RIGHT & WRONG ABOUT GAY FRIENDSHIP

There was Jack, the flamboyant one most people assumed gay men to be; then there was Eric McCormack's Will Tman, the mundane, everyman that tght straight people their next-door neighbor uld be gay.

Will's portrayal has gone on to be the blueprt for most gay men on televisn sce then, whereas Jack is somehow seen as negative, and regrsive. Was he a gay mstrel show?

WILL AND GRACE STAR CONFIRMS HE’S GAY

I've e to realize that Karen Walker was the te gay in of Will & Grace. As portrayed by Megan Mullally, Karen was the boozy, outspoken bch of the NBC s, often ed as a gay male surrogate the way that the women of Sex and the Cy uld often be.

Much has been ballyhooed about whether Jack's feme, theatre-lovg, melodramatic portrayal did a disservice to gay men as the one mastream reprentatn on televisn. It's as much looked down upon the gay muny to be "femme" as is the straight muny.

The stereotyp are nstantly nonted by seri like RuPl's Drag Race and films like Moonlight, but there are still gay men who prefer to date a "mascule" man, one who do not project to the world like a Bat signal that he's a homosexual. In that rpect, Jack is a fantastic portrayal of a gay man. If Karen were a gay man, would have been a tly revolutnary portrayal and one of the first steps towards fantastilly three-dimensnal characters like T on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Lafayette on Te Blood.

HOW WILL & GRACE PAVED THE WAY FOR GAY CHARACTERS ON TV

A much bolr portrayal of Jack would've shown how a brash, no-nonsense feme gay man uld enjoy sex and relatnships jt as anyone else.

But an attempt to make gays palatable to mastream dienc, the homo part of Jack's personaly beme ripe for jok but the sexual part remaed behd closed doors.

'GRACE AND FRANKIE' REVIEW: NETFLIX SERI ABOUT GAY HBANDS AND SPURNED WIV IS REMARKABLE

A much bolr portrayal of Jack would've shown how a brash, no-nonsense feme gay man uld enjoy sex and relatnships jt as anyone exists a long le of female characters wrten by gay men who keep you tung wh their outrageo behavr and snappy one-lers.

Ryan Murphy has practilly ma a reer out of the women (Jsi Lange, Nene Leak, Jane Lynch, and Ellen Bark have all portrayed one or many), whereas his gay men tend to be sad, tortured begs like the perpetually sacchare Kurt and Blae on Glee or Fd's pictn of gay actor Victor Buono. Hay, who told gay fans last year he "owed them a huge apology for g out too late, " is now an openly gay man who has an ia of what 's like to fully embrace your sexualy 2017. I’ll never fet watchg a televisn terview wh a very well-known pastor who was asked about homosexualy.

He said, “I don’t speak about homosexualy bee J don’t talk about or fe . Acrdg to a Barna study, only 24 percent of churched Generatn Z Christians, ag 13-18, believe that homosexualy is wrong.

‘WILL & GRACE’ FANS ARE STILL UNSURE IF ERIC MCCORMACK IS GAY REAL LIFE

I’ve had many iends who through the years have e out as beg gay. I see the s of homosexualy the same as I see my own s.

I’ve never treated my gay iends differently, bee my s nailed J to the cross jt as much as theirs. I’ll never fet watchg a televisn terview wh a very well-known pastor who was asked about homosexualy.

But by cludg gay them, Grace and Frankie has taken on the rponsibily of beg a queer show.

GRACE AND FRANKIE: THE COMPLEXY OF GAY INTY

On that level, fails simply by not knowg what 's dog, " the Mic article read, before specifilly potg to the show's mishandlg of the on-screen chemistry between two gay men while also referencg the bad sex jok. It's possible, however, that the biggt problem wh Grace and Frankie is the way seemgly "ps gay men agast agg women, " two mographics who are already stgglg as is. Gay men thrive a tribe.

That’s what I’ve learned om TV shows, thk piec, and Instagram photos featurg groups of gays. But that’s not how my gay plotle has veloped. I me out paratively late, bond wh a muny of people uned by a sire to perform edy a grocery store basement, and let ternalized homophobia stall my self-acceptance until well after I found my Mr.

Now I’m a 32-year-old married gay man who’s more proud of beg out than ever — but I don’t have a group of gays.