Empire’s Jsie Smollett Talks Gay Scen and His Character’s Directn

empire season 3 gay scenes

Fox's new hip-hop seri tak a stand by troducg a gay character wh a notorly homophobic genre

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EMPIRE'S GAY SON IS THE SHOW'S GREATT ASSET

* empire season 3 gay scenes *

Unr this bric, the lik of which is ed by GLAAD and other observers to judge the media, any profsedly gay character (who is not problematilly tragic or villao) is a sign of progrs, regardls of how much or ltle that gayns flects the material of the show.

EMPIRE 'S GAY SON IS THE SHOW'S GREATT ASSET

What if we judged the gay bona fis of a show not only on whether queer people are prent somewhere s narrative universe, but also—and pecially—on how creatively that prence to lor or enhance the story’s basic amework?

Her path to that reclamatn is through managg the gay one, Jamal (Jsie Smollett), of whom (spe her referrg to him as a fag, sissy, and queen over the urse of the episo) she is a voted advote and fan.

EMPIRE'S GAY SON IS THE SHOW'S GREATT ASSET

His gayns will mark him as threateng, weak, or merely alien the mil culture which she wants to make him a star; overg those prejudic is not the kd of thg wh which sensivy trag n really help. The plex relatnship between Cookie and Jamal may be the most poignant maniftatn of Empire’s engagement wh gayns, but ’s hardly the only one.

I had been told before seeg the pilot that the show had an “tertg gay character, ” but the reports overstate Jamal’s still-th characterizatn and unrstate the extent to which gayns (as relat to fay and perhaps the black muny) appears to be the show’s central ncern. Sometim this ncern is exprsed overly blunt wrg, such as when Jamal’s boyiend rponds to his ncerns about how black dienc will rpond to a gay mician by sayg: “It’s 2015; nobody r. ” But more often is imprsively specific, faiar, and well-renred, as the way Jamal’s father and olr brother unfortably refer to his partners as “iends” and the early drs-up--mom’s-heels trma, a sort of ur-scene (apparently based on Daniels’ own experience) that will be pafully faiar to many gay men.

The pot is, I was thrilled to disver over the urse of the pilot that I was not jt watchg a show that happened to offer up a gay character an unlikely ntext, but rather a show that was largely about the fascatg ictn between that ntext and gayns. We n bate whether is fair (or sirable) to term Empire a “gay show, ” but ’s arguable that the sissy seri—if liv up to the promise of s pilot—has the potential to advance the gay reprentatn nversatn a nsirable amount.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* EMPIRE SEASON 3 GAY SCENES

Lee Daniels on How Empire's Gay Content is Changg Mds .

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