In the past two s, TV and movie pictns of straight girl-gay boy iendships have gone om groundbreakg (My So-Called Life) to the form (Glee, Gossip Girl). Here are some of the most classic GBF pop-culture pairgs.
Contents:
- PERFORMG GLEE: GAY RISTANCE TO GAY REPRENTATNS AND A NEW SLUMPY CLASS TAYLOR COLE MILLER / FLOW SENR EDOR
- WHO WOULD BE YOU GLEE GAY BT IEND?
- FRIENDSHIP TROUBLE: AN EXAMATN OF THE GAY BT FRIEND INTY AMERIN CONSUMER CULTURE
- HEY RYAN MURPHY: LEAVE MORN FAY ALONE AND MAKE GLEE GAY-FRIENDLY INSTEAD
- GBF (GAY BT FRIEND) HALL OF FAME
PERFORMG GLEE: GAY RISTANCE TO GAY REPRENTATNS AND A NEW SLUMPY CLASS TAYLOR COLE MILLER / FLOW SENR EDOR
Love him or hate him, the Gay Bt Friend (GBF) plays a big role pop culture. * glee gay best friend *
Often an important first step troducg queer storyl to mastream dienc, the GBF trope had a tenncy to rerce stereotyp about gay men: that their only terts are makeovers, shoppg and drama, that their stggl and relatnships fa to the background unls they're supportg a straight person's story, and that they only exist to be wise oracl about love and LGBTQ+ reprentatn Hollywood improv both onscreen and behd the mera, movi and TV shows are gettg creasgly self-aware, creatg gay characters who provi the ic relief we love while tearg down outdated ias.
Perhaps the earlit example of the classic Gay Bt Friend character is 1984 movie The Woman Red, a Gene Wilr edy about a married man who be obssed wh a mol (Kelly LeBrock) after he se her skirt get blown up by a wd grate, Marilyn Monroe-style. Rickie Vasquez (Wilson Cz) of ABC's short-lived cult classic My So-Called Life (1994-1995) is one of the first exampl of a gay character a high school ensemble seri -- but what mak him pecially noteworthy is that he challenged the Gay Bt Friend trope before was even a trope. Helen Hunt stars as Carol, a sgle mom and his love tert who "mak him want to be a better man, " while former Talk Soup host Greg Knear surprised dienc wh his imprsive actg chops as Simon, the gay neighbor who be iends wh the curmudgeonly Simon, an artist, is badly beaten up by a iend of one of his mols, his agent (Cuba Goodg Jr.
WHO WOULD BE YOU GLEE GAY BT IEND?
She enlists the help of her gay iend Gee (Rupert Everett), who drops everythg to fly to Chigo, pretends to be Jul' fiance to make Michael jealo, and trolls the hell out of her while dispensg nuggets of wisdom about her love is such a fantasy of a character that he may as well be a unirn, but Everett is jt so charmg about the whole thg.
The flash-forward at the end, wh all the characters beg one big happy fay, was progrsive for s time; but the ia that a gay man uld be attracted to a woman if she plays her rds right is a b unfortable. But then Abbie meets a guy who wants to get married and move to New York, and the romantic edy spirals to a bizarre urtroom drama as they fight over ctody of their Ebert gave the movie one star and lled "a garage sale of gay issu, " bombed at the box office, and Everett later revealed that led to the llapse of his iendship wh Madonna. Ta Fey's 2004 high school edy is proof that the gay bt iend don't have to be an offensive or trivial character, bee what would Mean Girls even be whout "too gay to functn" Damian (Daniel Franze) and "big lbian csh" Janis (Lizzy Caplan)?
FRIENDSHIP TROUBLE: AN EXAMATN OF THE GAY BT FRIEND INTY AMERIN CONSUMER CULTURE
As much as we love and appreciate Ryan Murphy's high school mil seri (2009-2015) as a formative experience for lennials everywhere, s portrayal of LGBTQ+ people ran to a few be fair, Chris Colfer's character Kurt was a TV breakthrough, offerg a much-need posive role mol to gay kids. His relatnship wh Blae (Darren Criss) was one of the first tim we got to see two young gay characters kissg onscreen a mastream, fay-oriented edy, and we'll never fet the way his father Burt (Mike O'Malley) fied stereotyp by beg pletely supportive when Kurt me out to him. But his gossipy iendship wh Rachel (Lea Michele) and her hab of llg Kurt her "bt gay" had some crics wonrg if he was beg treated like an accsory, a bate that n set off Tumblr fandom shoutg match to this day.
Chigo improv edy troupe The Send Cy left their mark wh Sassy Gay Friend, a viral YouTube sk starrg Brian Gallivan as a GBF who talks sense to Shakpearean hero and other women om ancient history. Instead of him supportg the female lead, 's actually Olive (Emma Stone) who looks out for him, by pretendg to (loudly) have sex wh him at a party so he n keep homophobic bulli off his back until he n graduate high school. A llege ex-boyiend of Dunham's character Hannah, Elijah reveals that he's gay early Season 1 when she tri to fd out if he gave her HPV -- and then drops the memorable bombshell, "It was nice to see you.
F., remiscent of Mean Girls and Not Another Teen fashn magaz clarg a Gay Bt Friend to be this season's hottt accsory, three would-be prom queens fight over recently outed stunt Tanner (Michael J.
HEY RYAN MURPHY: LEAVE MORN FAY ALONE AND MAKE GLEE GAY-FRIENDLY INSTEAD
The enuragg takeaway om this progrsive-md show, however, is that if your queer reprentatn also clus a bisexual, biracial lead character (Aisha Dee), her lbian Mlim love tert (Nikohl Boosheri), and a Black gay man who is head of the fashn partment (Stephen Conrad Moore), the GBF character stops beg a potentially harmful stereotype and be more of a playful wk at whe gay men. ")Like a te GBF, Donny seems to have no purpose beyond obssg over Natalie's love life and givg her a makeover montage scene -- but the good news is, when she fds her way back to the real world, turns out her neighbor really is gay and datg Bowen Yang.
While straight people haven't always been supportive of our rights, there's nothg they want more than a sassy and stylish gay bt iend to give them advice, read them when necsary, and never be aaid to speak the tth. The uple is yet to start a and Grant dated for jt over a year before they cid to spend the rt of their liv together, and although fairly private about their personal liv, the pair often share adorable pictur on social Colfer as Kurt HummelChris Colfer is openly gay and currently a relatnship wh his longtime partner, Will Sherrod. I believe this distaste for male flamboyance is what is happeng when gay men tell me they hate Glee’s flamboyantly gay character, Kurt Hummel, who n bt be summed up by his rponse to the qutn, Is that a men’s sweater?
GBF (GAY BT FRIEND) HALL OF FAME
Although for much of Glee’s first season, Kurt explicly out at least once per episo, the show ntu to rely on his clothg, speech, mannerisms, and song choice to his queerns, a practice of stereotypg bemoaned by gay men, like those above, who thk he is an offensive, anachronistic stereotype. Gay characters broadstg have been around sce rad’s ceptn, but bee homosexualy was not “sayable” on rad and later televisn, and programs were strictly prohibed om employg explicly gay characters, broadstg appropriated the procs of stereotypg to articulate characters’ sexuali.
” To overe this issue, gay advocy groups such as the Gay Liberatn Front (GLF) began and/or cultivated practic of stereotypg the mass media to rpond to, nigrate, or take posssn of reprentatn of gayns. Gayns, and to an even greater extent queerns, has bee so nflated wh stereotype, that we have subscribed to a new speci of performativy — one that mt be rried out flawlsly so our sexualy is not termate.