Archer and homophobia: The Wd Cri Mary and gay panic.

Contents:

• ARCHER AND HOMOPHOBIA: THE WD CRI MARY AND GAY PANIC.
• THE SISTER GAY BAL, CYRIL. YOU HAVE FALLEN VICTIM TO THE SISTER GAY BAL.
• SPY-ON-SPY ACTN: GAY LIFE ON ARCHER

ARCHER AND HOMOPHOBIA: THE WD CRI MARY AND GAY PANIC.

Archer: "And mak you temporarily gay? Are you gay or not? Rudy: "You are entirely too gay.

Archer and homophobia: The Wd Cri Mary and gay panic.

In his review of “The Wd Cri Mary, ” last Thursday’s episo of Archer, Todd VanDerWerff acced the show of “gay panic” and noted that “the sexual polics of the storyle are kd of tortured and nvoluted. Archer has played a dangero game wh gay humor throughout s entire n, wh “The Wd Cri Mary” simply revealg more than ual about the show’s uneasy relatnship wh homosexualy.

THE SISTER GAY BAL, CYRIL. YOU HAVE FALLEN VICTIM TO THE SISTER GAY BAL.

On the one hand, Archer do feature an openly gay character (Ray) who also happens to be voiced by the show’s creator, Adam Reed. Moreover, most gay-related humor on Archer volv Mallory Archer’s homophobic jib at Ray, which are received wh disgt by the other characters.

We’re meant to lgh at her homophobia, not wh . On the other hand, Archer often plays off the kd of homophobic stereotyp that historilly fostered so much fear and hatred toward gay people. Ray is often picted as hypersexualized, and while he’s not alone beg oversexed (see: Pam), the tra feels que load when applied to a gay man.

SPY-ON-SPY ACTN: GAY LIFE ON ARCHER

All too often, however, Ray’s actns play to distorted societal misnceptns about gay people where Archer’s or Malory’s miseds would merely be absurdly funny. Anyone wh a fat knowledge of LGBT history will know that gays were long monized as hypersexual beasts unable to ntrol their impuls, and as sexually aggrsive threats to straight men, and that one historic punishment for sodomy was stratn.

In last week’s episo, perhaps Reed was attemptg to circumvent potential allegatns of homophobia by makg Le Archersexual rather than homosexual, but I thk he failed: Le reads as gay, illy so, right down to renovatg a B&B Vermont. But we lgh at Archer’s gay-rape twist bee Archer is a dolt, and everybody’s silly, and Le was jt a gut character voiced by Timothy Olyphant, and, hey, aren’t we basilly over anti-gay discrimatn, anyway? I thk Reed feels fortable jectg this kd of startlgly homophobic humor to his show bee also featur an openly gay character.

But for ls tolerant viewers, the episo rerc the notn that an oversexed monster lurks si every gay man. But whether riffg on 1940s Hollywood noir narrativ s last season or embracg a Don Johnson meets Srface vibe Season Five's Archer Vice era, there's always been, at s re, Hollywood's go-to ia of a leadg man: a rtoonish versn of Ian Flemg's womanizg, dnken, hetero where Bond remas an opprsive bastn of heterosexual masculy—look no further than all this talk about how Bond uldn't, heaven forbid, everbe gay—FXX's animated seri has surround Sterlg Archer (name "Duchs, " don't ask) wh a wildly sexually provotive roster of characters. In fact, while Hollywood smugly pats self on the back for the cln of a queer Power Ranger or an "exclively gay" moment your favore splay-as-remake Disney project, FXX's R-rated show has been showsg the kd of plex and stereotype-smashg LGBTQ character we are seemgly always on the cp of seeg on a mastream pop culture Gillette (pronounced like the razor; don't let his hillbilly fay tell you otherwise) was first troduced a cutaway gag the show's first season.

Always eager to e his spy missns to bed as many women as humanly possible, Archer is disappoted when his boss, who's also his mother, rms him the target is a gay Cuban secret agent. Cut to: our first look at ISIS's openly gay secret agent.

In an episo that both flnts and lls out gay stereotyp—Archer ially fails to attract closeted Cuban Ramon Limon by bleachg his hair, donng some roller skat, a skimpy pair of whe shorts, and a crop top that reads "Got Dick? Moreover, Archer walks a fe le between makg Ray's homosexualy an almost cintal character tra and makg a central part of his inty. Th, for every throwaway gag that merely plays up his gayns— his send appearance, he tells Aisha Tyler's bodac Lana Kane that she looks great her knock-off Fcchi drawers, elicg a "You're such a bch!

" retort—there are moments that broan our knowledge of how this once Olympic gold-medalist skier om Wt Virgia beme an ace bomb fer wh two nickel-plated M1911 pistols nicknamed Barbra and walks a fe le between makg Ray's homosexualy an almost cintal character tra and makg a central part of his an episo of the show's third season tled "Bloody Ferl, " we actually get to travel to the backwoods town where Ray grew up and where his father openly tried to still his young effemate son a much more socially acceptable visn of mascule strength, cludg killg a bear wh a bow and takg a be out of s heart. As we're learn later the show, he was eventually sent to a Pray Away the Gay Camp where he met his wife—a lbian, of urse ("That was a pretty weird time for me, " he adms).