If television trends this summer have proved anything, it’s this: whether you have swish, style and flare or just don’t care; whether you spend your weekends powershopping for vintage dust ruffles or sitting on the couch, guzzling cheap beer and scratching your netherregions; whether you like boys or girls; whether anyone wants to admit it or not, Americans, for the first time, are embracing their inner homos. As the once-defined lines of gender identity continue to blur, programming has begun to reflect this social pattern of role reversal and confusion and poof! suddenly there are more poofs on the boob tube than ever.
The show with the most impact and viewers, garnered in the shortest amount of time, is Bravo’s ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.’ This made-over makeover show features ‘the Fab Five’ experts in culture, fashion, food and wine, interior design and grooming who give unsuspecting straight males facelifts for their lifestyles. Struggling to overcome obstacles like hopelessly outdated clothing, hideous grooming habits and perplexing furniture arrangements, the Fab Five swarm around clueless breeder males, cracking wiseass remarks the whole time and earnestly wanting to bestow bits of their expertise on an elsewhere-focused creature.
Some straights inevitably see the show as more of an attack on the heinous habits of the hetero rather than a healthy exploration into the wicked wit and whimsy known as gay culture. The implication of the show indeed is that when it comes to self-tanning, the perfect highlights, creating accents in a living space or making the perfect creme brulee, gays just have better taste and more style than straights. Well, duh.
Here’s the issue underlying ‘Queer Eye’: are gender distinctions becoming so blurred that it’s suddenly attractive for a heterosexual male to wax all his body hair, obsess over the texture of his coif and spend more time in the bathroom than his girlfriend? At the end of nearly every episode, the makeover victim, freshly moisturized and manicured, shares the results with his jubilant loved ones. The victim seems happy at his ability to finally get those little details just right. The Fab Five consistently seem like they might wet themselves with joy and excitement. A good time is had by all.
‘Boy Meets Boy’ (does this title remind anyone else of a mid-90s Ben Savage sitcom?) is the first gay dating show and is based on a mean-spirited punchline: the gay bachelor, James, must choose a mate from a group of seemingly willing and able men. The suitors are competing for ‘one exceptional gay man’ and, oh yeah, a secret cash prize. The trick, of course, is that said Exceptional Gay Man doesn’t know about the three straights thrown into the mix. Won’t it be hysterical when he finds out at the end? said the homophobic television executive.
Be assured that the focus is on the viewer and his ability to ‘play along’ and guess each contestant’s sexuality. The program’s message is that you can determine someone’s sexuality based solely on dress, talk and general appearance. Remind me: why do we care? Why are straights forever obsessed with their gaydar and how accurate it is? ‘Boy Meets Boy,’ with its built-in twist, tediously educates the viewing public about the very traits that act as purple flags for gay boys.
The show could easily be viewed as an immature prank played on an unsuspecting guy who just wants to find a boyfriend. Another way to look at ‘Boy Meets Boy,’ though, is to recognize the value of shocking middle America into the realization that stereotyping is becoming harder and more futile. It’s secret beauty is that it reveals and destroys prejudices you never even knew you had. Why would you assume a man is straight because he is a chiropractor? How could a breeder actually pluck his eyebrows? And you can’t possibly mean that a straight man would look the camera dead in the eye and admit his longing for a committed relationship that allows for vulnerability?
The answer to the last question is clearly no. Times and roles may be changing, but have you ever met a vulnerable, completely honest hetero male? Didn’t think so. Television’s new wave of queer-flavored programming, though, is helping to break down stereotypes and make it possible for an individual to take on any role he chooses a flaming Mary can become a successful chiropractor or a breeder dude can finally clean up his foul, forsaken unibrow.
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